RWBY:Rebirth
by Locke62
Summary: A teenage boy gets hooked on a show off of Netflix. due to an unexpected accident, he is forgiven for what he's done and is given another chance. and he chooses beacon. but his time at the school is not a gift. When family matters come back to haunt him, he has to raise to defend his new home and his new life
1. Chapter 1: Death

note I own nothing but my character and the story line. all rights to their respected owners.

John sat at home watching Netflix, enjoying a new favorite of his.  
The show was called RWBY.

"I am so glad no one is home." He said to himself as he went to the  
kitchen for a snack, pausing the show. His parents went out of town to  
visit a family friend and he had opted to stay home. "I can watch all  
the anime I want and nobody can take away the TV!" He yelled in  
victory as he pumped his fist into the air. He came back to the couch  
with a bowl of chips and a massive grin.

John watched RWBY late into the night and by the time it was done he  
was thoroughly pleased that he had stumbled a crossed such a gem. "Ah  
man! What a great show. I'll go look for season three tomorrow." He  
mumbled as he shambled off to his room.

He pushed his textbooks off his bed and plopped down hard. He didn't  
bother changing and just took off his shirt and wriggled under the  
covers. He was soon fast asleep.

 _BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_ John rolled over and slammed his fist down on  
the diabolical machine. It collided with the alarm clock with a  
satisfying thud. "High school." He groaned as he got out of bed. What  
a great way to ruin such a great dream.

In his dream, John had been attending the halls of beacon. He had  
spent the day hanging out with team RWBY and JNPR. He had attended  
class with the hunters and huntresses like it was normal. They even  
beat up Cardin. But then school had to happen.

He walked down the hall to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.  
There were dark bags around his brown eyes. His black hair was  
standing in the front, making it look like he was wearing a helmet.

He plucked one and measured it. Inch and a half. He was good for now.  
He tossed a towel onto the sink and got into the shower. It took him  
a good 45 minutes to wash, given his body type.

John was tall for his age. At 15 years old, he stood at 6'2 and  
weighed in at only 150 pounds. His mom used to try to make him go as  
a skeleton for Halloween, but he never agreed to it. Even thought he  
had a body some could only try to achieve, he was unsatisfied. He  
often stubbed his toe Because of his size, not to mention the  
accidental head butts with trees. He was fast, sure, but he didn't have  
to much strength.

But he did like his skin color. A lot of time in the sun, and a  
combination of bloodline, had given him a permanent tan. He liked how  
the skin was the same tone as the soil in the backyard, giving him a  
natural feeling.

He turned off the water and got out. After a quick towel off and  
change of clothes, he collected his things in his bag and proceeded to  
the garage for his bike. The school was only a few miles away, so he  
had to leave pretty early.

As he sped away to school John's thoughts drifted away to the show he  
was watching last night. As he waited for the light to change, he  
mused on what could happen next.

Green light. He started to cross the road, RWBY still on his mind. It  
wasn't until it was to late that he noticed he wasn't the only one  
distracted.

There was a loud crash and a massive blunt force from his right. Less  
than a tenth of a second later he was skidding across the asphalt. He  
could feel the muscle and skin being shaved off his body. His legs  
were hopelessly tangled in bike.

Time Slowed down. Once the world stopped spinning John's watery eyes  
finally took in the sight of what had hit him. A platinum colored van  
was speeding towards him. In the driver seat was a long haired blond  
woman, eyes open in shock. She had her phone in her hand, obviously in  
the middle of a text.

John had less than a second to live. He wanted to dodge, but he knew  
it was impossible. _I knew I hated those things for a reason_. He  
thought with a cruel sense of humor right before he was ran over.

He stood next to the scene, looking down on his body _. Man that looks_  
 _ugly._ After John had died he had woke up by the side of the road.  
There was police rope blocking off the scene. His bike laid to the  
side, crushed.

A police man came over to the men cleaning up John's remains. "I just  
got off the phone with his parents." He said.

 _Oh?_ John walked over to the group. He wanted to hear this.

"They were out of town at the time, and there on the way home now."  
 _Well, that's to be expected_. "We're being ordered to take the body to  
the station." The body guys nodded, lifting up the bag and putting it  
in the back of an ambulance. A little bit away cops were putting the  
blonde in the back of a squad car. She was visibly in tears, her phone  
still clutched in her hand.

John didn't blame her. He should be angry. He should be screaming at  
her. He aught to be plotting his undead revenge. But he wasn't. He  
wasn't even sad.

 _Should have seen it coming._ He told himself. _Besides, what uses is a_  
 _grudge now?_ As soon as he thought this, a glowing ball of light  
appeared over his left shoulder. He knew what it was.

John stood up. He looked at the light. He had done a lot of bad  
things in his life. He was a thief, and a good one too. So why did it  
appear?

 _No matter._ John thought. _I'll just ask the man himself._ He reached  
for the light, then hesitated. He looked over his shoulder, his  
sadness finally becoming apparent. _I'm sorry._ He thought. Then he  
touched the light.

It was instantaneous. One moment he felt a fuzzy sensation in his  
hand, the next it was like his body was being stretched and he was  
being sucked through a soda straw _. Harry Potter._ Was the only thought  
that went though his head as he was pulled upwards.

The next second John stood in a blinding white room. He squinted his  
eyes, he blocked his eyes with his hand. It took some time for his  
eyes to adjust.

In the middle of the room sat a long table laden with food. At the  
table sat a group of people that could only be described as those of  
the bible. An old man sat closest to him, a weathered staff leaning  
against his chair. He must be Noah. There was a handsome man, rather  
short, that sat rather proudly. _David maybe?_ There was a number more  
people who sat there who he couldn't name, but he could make a guess  
on who was at the head of the table.

He sat on the blandest of chairs, just a plain wooden chair. It  
looked old. He had on a flowing white robe and a circuit made of some  
plant on his head _. Vine? Holy?_ John didn't know. Noir did he have to  
know.

Jesus was the only one who seemed to notice John's arrival. The others  
were either talking or eating. Not sure what to do, John sat down on  
the floor. This made Jesus raise an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" He asked. There was a kind patience in his voice.

"Sitting." John replied simply.

"Why don't you come sit at the table, like so many before you?" The god asked.

"Because it's _your_ table. I figured I would need permission to sit  
with a God." Jesus gestured to a chair and John took it.

"Most people believe they have a right to be in heaven as soon as  
they make it this far. But you don't. Why?" John looked him in the  
eye. There was no fear in them.

"Because this is a test. I doubt that you would let me in because I'm  
on the list. I'm not a devoted follower. And I've committed a lot of  
crime in my day. So there is something I don't know going on. So I  
reasoned that you have a reason."

Jesus looked at him intently. "You interest me. So I will give you a  
choice. You can go to the promised land of heaven and live in  
happiness, or be granted one wish, and one wish only." He waited  
patiently for the answer. He didn't have to wait long.

"When do I get to go?" John said.


	2. Chapter 2: A new life

note. I own nothing but the storyline and my character. all rights to their respective owners.

Ten days before the students of beacon returned for the next school  
year, Ozpin was going through the stack of entry papers memorizing the  
new students when he encountered something odd. There was one more  
than there should have been.

"Strange." He said to himself, taking a sip of coffee. He taped the  
intercom. " Glynda, could you come to my office please?." He switched  
off the intercom and continued reading the entrance form.

A few minutes later Glynda Goodwitch stormed into the office. "I  
swear, if you called me here to do your paper work again, I will..."  
She was cut off as Ozpin raised a hand. His eyes were still on the  
entrance form.

"I called you here to ask you about this." He said, handing her the  
paper. Glynda read the paper thoroughly. "It showed up in my office is  
this morning on top off the others. I've never seen it before."

"It's probably just a prank from one of the other professors." Glynda  
said, tossing the paper back on the desk.

"But there's the thing." Professor Ozpin said, picking up the paper.  
"He's already in the system. As you know, I'm the only one with  
control over such a thing." Glynda came around to look at his computer  
screen. Sure enough, the teen in question was indeed enrolled. But  
what really interested her was...  
"he's born tomorrow, in the emerald forest."

John woke up at the base of a fallen tree. Next to him lay a long,  
black sword. Around his waist was a leather belt with a heavy pistol  
holstered to it. There was six magazines of modded ammo secured to the  
back. He wore his traditional sweatshirt, but instead of sweats he  
wore loose jeans. On his back was an empty sword sheath.

Could have gone for a shield though. He thought. Just then something  
hard fell on the back of his head. He rubbed the back of his head as  
he looked at the arm guard that popped out of nowhere.

"Thank you!" He called out, not sure if the immortal being in  
question could even hear him. John strapped the arm guard to his arm  
and pressed a button. The side of the guard opened up and plates  
unfurled like a sail. Then from each plate extended more folds. When  
the process was done he had a 4 foot diameter round shield. No seams  
in sight.

 _Impressive._ He thought as he hefted his shield. It had a weight, but  
not enough to get in the was with his movements. He walked over and  
picked up his sword. It was a long, one edged sword. The handle made  
it a hand-and-a half sword. The hand guard was designed to catch the  
opponent's weapon and possibly disarm them. It had the mobility and  
weight of a one handed weapon, but had the size and the durability of  
a two handed. On the opposite side from the blade, the sword had an  
elegant curve 2 thirds of the way down that turned into what looked  
like a wave. From the crest of the wave to the tip of the weapon was a  
second edge.

John marveled at his sword. He had designed it in his dream, but he  
never thought he would be holding it in real life. It was beautiful.  
It was forever sharp, and could not be scratched or broken. "I'll call  
you Midnight." He told the sword. It was a fitting name.

He gave the blade a few swings and then secured it safely in its  
sheath. He then took the time to examine the surrounding area. Bushes,  
trees, rocks, and dirt. Pretty much expected. He then noticed that the  
tree had not fallen like he originally thought. No, it had been cut in  
half!

now he recognized this place. It was Ruby that had cut down the tree  
while storming after Weiss. So that means...  
There was a noise behind him and he jumped. Without looking back he  
charged at the nearest tree. Because he was so big, John could easily  
reach just about any branch above him. He was about 20 feet above the  
ground he finally stopped and looked back. What he saw made him feel  
really stupid.

There in the middle of the clearing, a small brown rabbit stared up  
at him. He chastised himself. Not only did he run away from a harmless  
bunny, but it proved that he needed to pay attention to his  
surroundings more.

He let out a sigh. At least it wasn't a grim. Now that he had a  
moment to relax, he now saw the advantage of being spooked up the  
tree. He could now see the school. Or, mor accurately, he could see  
the way to the school. He could see the dirt path leading up to beacon  
cliffs. That was the way out of this forest. He took note of  
nevermores in the northern sky. "Good thing you're going southwest."  
John told himself. He then descended the tree.

John took off in a quick but cautious pace. Relying heavily on his  
ears, he snuck through the forest. Once he mad it to the cliff side,  
he began to move north looking for the path.

John walked through the woods, making sure to keep the cliff side to  
his left. He had his gun in his hands, safety off. He was constantly  
checking to make sure he didn't drop any ammo. He was ready to run  
if he encountered an enemy, yet he was secretly enjoying himself.

 _my folks back home would never believe me._ He thought gleefully. He  
did it. He was actually here. He was in Remnant! There was a skip in  
his stride as he enjoyed the thought. He had no idea how he was going  
to survive, but John was so happy he didn't care. "I'll work out the  
money later." He said out loud.

John was mentally making a list of all the thing he had to do when  
the sound of trampled plants reached his ears. He looked to the right  
to see that something was pushing it's way through the shrubbery at a  
fast pace. He barely dogged out of the way as a boarbatusk rolled  
through were he had stood just seconds before. It slammed against the  
cliff and was temporarily knocked senseless.

John aimed his gun at the Grimm and pulled the trigger. Nothing  
happened. _The safety!_ He yelled in his head. He flicked the switch on  
the side of the gun and aimed at the boarbatusk once more. It had  
gotten to its feet and was preparing to charge again.

Knowing it would be useless to attack it, John tensed up his legs.  
The boarbatusk charged, eyes red and angry. John leapt forward and to  
the left of the monster, firing twice with his right hand. One the  
bullets pierced the side of the grim. The creature yelped in pain.

John landed hard on his head. He had tried to roll to his feet, but  
only managed to hurt himself. He rolled over on his back just in time  
to see the beast attack for the third time. Moving on instinct, he  
raised his knees while simultaneously punching the button on his arm  
guard. He locked his knees behind the shield and reached for the gun.

 _SLAM!_ The boarbatusk rammed right into John's shield and continued  
to roll up and over his head. John grabbed the gun, put his arms over  
his head and shot frantically at the pig like grim. At point blank  
range, even a novice like him could hit it.

 _Click! Click! Click!_ The fire arm was empty, and the boarbatusk laid  
dead. John got to his feet panting, sweat covering just about his  
entire body. His arms were sore from the recoil of the gun. There was  
a bruise on his upper back from when his body smashed against his  
sword.

John drew his sword as he walked over to the fallen boarbatusk. With  
one clean swipe of his sword, he cut off one of the creatures tusks.  
"Should have done that first." He said as he picked up his prize. He  
reloaded his gun and put it back in the holster.

Proceeding with his trek, this time with his sword in hand, John  
finally made his way out of the forest.

Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch watched John make his way  
through the forest through the hidden cameras in the forest.  
"Interesting." Ozpin commented.

"That be selling him short. He just took the full brunt of a  
boarbatusk attack and was able to walk away perfectly fine. Who is  
this kid?" Goodwitch exclaimed as she watched him take his trophy from  
the dead grim. "And what is that sword?"

Ozpin said nothing. He got out of his chair and walked over to the door.

"And we're are you going?" Goodwitch asked.

"To meet our new student."


	3. Chapter 3: The questions

Note. I own nothing except the my character and the storyline. all rights to their respected owners.

for any wondering, this was written on my ipad so the text is weird.

John staggered across the court yard of beacon, exhaust and beaten.  
It had been been a longer journey up the the hill than he thought. He  
had a slight limp. "Ahhhhh." He rested his back against the main  
doors. "My legs are killing me." He laid his head back and closed his  
eyes, letting the rest of his energy drain out of his limbs.

 _I wonder if schools in session._ He thought lazily. He reached up and  
pulled on the door handle. Locked. _Ah well._

He was beginning to doze off when he heard a click. His experiences  
for the last hour had made him jumpy and as soon as he heard the noise  
he sped off before the door could open. John could hear the  
distinguishable sound of high heals and the even sound of normal  
shoes.

"Ok Ozpin, we're is he. You said he was right here." A woman spoke.  
Her voice sounded annoyed. John recognized her voice as Glynda  
Goodwitch, Ozpin's right hand woman. And the man she was talking to  
must be...

"He was right here." Ozpin said. Cool and collected. _Yep, definitely Ozpin._

"Then were is he now?" The sound of high heals passed by John as  
Goodwitch strode past him. He had run forward and was now pushing his  
back up against the wall out of sight from the door, willing the light  
to bend around him. He doubted he had been gifted with the ability he  
wanted, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"you just passed him." Professor Ozpin said as he followed Glynda. _Oh  
no, they can see me!_ John frantically tried to come up with a story in  
his head.

"Were? I don't see him." John was frozen in surprise. It really did  
work. _Oh god, Thank you for such gifts! If we ever meet again, I so  
owe you a drink!_ He thought. He was pretty sure God was listening.

Ozpin was reading something on his scroll and didn't bother answering  
the question. John tried to get a glimpse of what he was looking at.

John had been wrong. Ozpin wasn't reading. There was a video on  
screen. _A video of John._

"You can come out now." Ozpin said, his back still turned towards  
him. John complied. Goodwitch flinched at him appearing out of thin  
air, but other than that showed no surprise. Professor Ozpin turned  
around for the first time. He look just like he did on the show. _Of course  
he does! Your in his world now. _John mentally scolded himself. He was  
geeking out over something that was now to be expected.

"That is a rather interesting semblance you have there. What do you  
call it?" Ozpin asked. Goodwitch was glaring daggers at him. "Your  
question has been answered Glynda. Stop giving me that look." She just  
crossed her arms in response.

"I call it _Specter._ I can go invisible, temporarily become  
weightless, turn into a shadow, make copies of myself, just about  
anything a ghost can do." John said in a proud voice. His semblance  
was fitting, considering he had already lost his life. Ozpin nodded,  
satisfied with his answer.

Goodwitch was tired of being ignored. "We have questions you need to  
answer." She said. "We saw everything. We have been watching you since  
your body materialized in the emerald forest. Were did you come from?  
Why did you arrive? How did you get here? What is that sword made of?  
I've never seen that gun before. How.." John cut her off with the  
raise of a hand.

"I'll gladly answer all your questions." John said, raising his hands  
in surrender. "But first, do you have any food? I haven't eaten  
anything since I was born." His stomach roared as in to make a point.  
Ozpin chuckled.

"Come. We'll sate that apatite of yours wile you tell us your tale."  
He said. He walked into the school, leaving the door open.

"Deal!" John chased after him.

They sat at a table in the cafeteria, John chowing down on any food  
that was unlucky enough to cross his path. The teachers waited  
patiently for him to finish. "So." John gulped down another month  
full. "Where should I start?"

"How about we start with who you are and were you come from." Ozpin  
said with his hands coupled. He had an intent look in his eye that  
said he was analyzing what he was going to say next.

"Ok." John said through a mouthful of food, then swallowed. "My name  
is John Straighter, and currently I come from the dead. I was killed  
in an accident back in my world and was given a choice to go to the  
afterlife or be granted a wish." They stared at him blankly. John  
could almost hear them think in perfect sync: _what the fuck?_ They  
obviously thought he was lying. Before they could speak he cut in, "  
Look, I can prove it. Look me up in city hall. I don't exist." He went  
back to eating.

Ozpin opened up his scroll and passed it to John. It was a  
registration form under his name. "Ah, man." John grind. "I so owe him  
now." When the professors looked at him weird he simply said "God."

"This is what we have on you right now. Currently this is the only  
document of you in existence. It arrived on my desk yesterday." Ozpin  
explained as John continued to read the document. "I have the paper  
one filed away."

John passed the scroll back. "First question down. What else do you  
want to know?" He pushed is sparkling clean tray to the side. He  
folded hands and rested his head on them.

Goodwitch spoke up this time. "Why here?" She said simply. It was a  
good question. There were countless of other things to wish for, so  
why did he want to live in such hostile world?

"To be honest, there is someone I want to meet. This place interested  
me greatly, but the people here interest me more. In my world, there  
is no dust. There is no faunus. Your technology is more advanced than  
ours was. But I came because I wanted to."

Goodwitch leaned forward. "So you knew about this world before you  
died?" John nodded. "How did you know there were other worlds besides  
your own?"

"In my world, scientists theorized that there was infinite dimensions  
other than our own, each one different than the last. I reasoned there  
was a distinct possibility that this world could exist." John  
explained. "I knew of Remnant from a show I enjoyed back home, And I  
like what I saw."

Goodwitch was satisfied with the answer, but Ozpin had one more  
question to add to the list. "What was the name of this show?" He  
asked.

"RWBY." John answers simply. Ozpin sighed.

"Should have figured it was those four." He said leaning back. When  
John questioned, he said "Those four have a knack for finding trouble.  
I'm also assuming their the main characters?" John nodded. This only  
confirmed what Ozpin was worried about. "You may go. Glynda, give him  
a tour and a room. He's already passed the entrance exams."

Goodwitch got up and led John out of the room. Before they left  
though, John called over his shoulder: "Don't be worried. It will all  
end all right. I have faith in them. But no, I don't know how it all  
ends." He then fallowed Goodwitch out of the room.

Goodwitch took him around the school, giving a short summary of the  
usage of each place. They visited the classrooms, the dorms, the  
training area, the docking platforms for the air ships, and the court  
yard again. She ended the tour by giving him a map and telling him his  
room number.

"Hey!" He called out as she turned to leave.

"What?" She stopped and looked back.

"When do classes start?" He asked.

"Not counting today?" She asked. John nodded. "Eight days." Then she left.

John wandered around campus half the afternoon,and eventually decided  
to visit the library. Most of the staff had already arrived at beacon  
and were prepping for their class. John found the librarians  
organizing the shelves. The lady behind the front desk called him over  
upon her noticing him.

"Your John right? Ozpin sent out an email about you. Feel free to  
check out any book you want, just return them by the time there due."  
She said. "Any questions?"

"Yeah. One, were are the books on on faunus, and when will I have to  
return them?" He asked. The librarian led him to a bookshelf full of  
what he was looking for.

"Any book checked out is due in three weeks." The librarian told him.  
John thanked her and she went back to work.

Now let's see... _History of faunus, the Great War, ah here we go._ He  
picked up a book titled: _faunus, the complete collection._ He checked  
out the book and took it out to the courtyard. He decided to read in a  
tree, not wanting to be seen.

It wasn't that he was antisocial. Far from it. He just wanted to keep  
the amount of people who might criticize his fascination of animal  
people at a minimal. He was sure a lot of people would find it weird. But he had  
to know more about them. _Then I might be able to help her._

John read a long time. So long, he didn't notice the day had ended  
until he could barely read the words on the page. He decided to go to  
his room. Surely there would be light to read by in his room.

He fallowed the map faithfully to were his room was located. But  
there was a sight that had stopped him on the way. It was team RWBY's  
door.

John place a hand of the wooden door. Only now could he finish  
processing that it was real. And he was happy. _This is a home I will  
never want to leave. _He thought.

John found his way to his room and opened the door. The room  
contained 4 beds, neatly arranged. There was a thick layer of dust  
upon them, as if they hadn't been used for years. There was a wardrobe  
and nightstand next to each one. There was another door near the  
entrance that led to the bathroom.

Sitting on the bed farthest to the left was a scroll and a note. John  
put the scroll on the night stand with his book and plopped down on  
the bed with the note.

A great cloud of dust enveloped his body, forcing him to cough. He  
made a mental note to clean to tomorrow. After the dust had settled  
and he stopped coughing, John read the note.

 _To John Straiter, this scroll is for you, as seen you will be needing  
it. You can use the same info you used to get that book to get into  
the scroll. Tomorrow Professor Oobleck is expecting you at ten in his  
room for a test. Don't be late. Welcome to beacon. Ozpin_

John put the note with the rest of his things and laid down on the  
bed. _I can't wait for tomorrow!_


	4. Chapter 4: The day of tests

Note. I own nothing but my character and the story line. all rights reserved for their respected owners.

this story was written on my ipad, so the text is structured differently.

He had made his way down to breakfast that morning to find there was  
a tray set aside for him, so he knew that they had not forgotten him.  
 _At least I won't starve_.

John made his way down to Proffesor Oobleck's classroom at around  
9:30 to give himself enough time to familiarize himself with the  
route. When he arrived at his destination, it was already 9:15. John  
decided to read.

John had finished most of the book last night, but he still had 50 or  
so more pages left. He was so absorbed in his book forgot to check the  
time periodically. It was only when the door open and he fell on his  
back (still with his nose in a book) did he realize he might be late.

"Studying are we?" John lowered the book to see Proffesor Oobleck  
grinning down on him. "Good good. You are already one step ahead of  
the rest." He nodded and took a sip of his coffee. "Come on inside now  
young man. We have much work to do."

John blinked. Oobleck had already moved into the room and was  
standing in front of the blackboard by the time John's eyes opened.  
 _Wow he's fast. I could only see a blur!_ John had known he was fast,  
but didn't think he could go warp speed fast.

John followed the professor into the room and was handed a test.  
"This is what I taught first years. If you pass this you can qualify  
for second year, assuming you pass the combat exams." Another sip of  
coffee and teleport. "Ozpin himself recommended we see what you know."

"You know I'm brand new to this world, right?" John asked.

"Yes. Now get to work." Oobleck took another sip of coffee and zipped  
over to his blackboard. It appeared as if he was setting it up for his  
first lecture.

John sat down in an upper row, not quite the back or the middle. Then  
a thought occurred to him.

"Hey Professor." He called out.

"Yes?"

"By any chance, is your first class first years?" If he was right,  
than the Oobleck was giving him the answers he needed.

"Yes, why?"

"Just wondering." John said returning to the paper. Question 1. What  
is the proper name for the faunus war? Easy. Faunus rights revolution.  
Question 2. What happens at the battle of fort castle and why. This  
was mentioned in the show, let's see...

John worked on the test in silence. He could answer a good deal of  
the history questions on his own, due to the combined experience from  
the book and the show. He did take an occasional peak at the  
blackboard though.

After the history test came a grimanolagy test. It was simply  
identifying grim, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, and  
their abilities. He did very well on Boarbatusk, Beowolves, death  
striders, and nevermores. But he didn't know much on the king  
taijitus. The last part of the test was a what would you do exams.  
John had reached the last 10 questions when he stopped.

This part was not about history, grim, dust or what not. This part is  
about the tester! He realized. Question 42. If you see someone about  
to be seriously hurt, but if you go help you Will get hurt in return.  
What would you do?

Question 43. Your teammates leave you to die. How do you treat them  
if you come back?

Question 44. You get lost in grim infested land. What do you do?

Question 45. When you lose or break your weapon on the battle ground,  
how should you act?

John had a hard time on 42. He wanted to say he would take the  
blow,but he was not sure he would be brave enough to willingly get  
hurt. Eventually he gave up and wrote what was on his mind.

At the bottom of the page was a little note. It read: these last ten  
questions will be filed away and will be a guideline for your future  
actions. In other words, it gives us a template in which you most like  
lied on so we can judge you on in the future.

Little did John know, his every movement was being observed by  
Oobleck. He was taking careful note on the teens every movement. The  
test was real, but the test that really counted was if he had the  
resourcefulness to locate each answer hidden in the room.

When John finished the test, he came to the front of the room and  
handed the test to Oobleck. He took I it from him and quickly looked  
through it, wrote on it at lightning speed, and handed it back. John  
looked at the front page. 82%.

"Pass." Oobleck said. He zipped over to his desk and sent a quick  
message on his scroll. A minute later, the scroll vibrated and Oobleck  
read the massage. "You are expected in the training hall at one  
thirty. I can assume you have an idea of what you will be doing?" John  
nodded. "Than you may go."

Once he left the room, John checked the time on his scroll. It was  
currently 10:45. I got time. To the library.

Three hours later, John sat in the front risers of the training room.  
He had a small pile of books next to him. He was in the middle of  
reading The Grimm Dictionary when Goodwitch walked in. Proffesor Port  
followed with a series of cages in a massive wagon.

"Good, your here. Than we can get started." Goodwitch instructed  
Professor Port to unload the cages in a row on the practice field.  
There were three cages in all. "Leave the books and bring your  
weapons."

John put aside the book. He hesitated, then left behind his gun and  
ammo. He brought only his sword to the field. "Ready." He said. He  
held his blade in his left hand in front of him and stared at the  
cage.

"Not using that gun of yours?" Goodwitch asked in surprise. John shook his head.

"As a kid, I always wanted to be a swordsman. Me and my siblings  
practiced with sticks." John said. He held the sword a bit to the left  
with a tilt to the right. If it was a Beowolf, he would lung forward  
and stab it in the chest. Fallow up with a downward slash to pull out  
the blade. If it was a boarbatusk, he would side step and cut at is as  
it passed. But what could be the third cage?

"You will be fighting some grim that Professor Port has captured. We  
will be standing by in case something goes wrong." Goodwitch said. She  
nodded at Professor Port. He took the tarp off the first cage. Inside  
was a boarbatusk.

"Ready, Go!" The cage opened and the grimm came charging out. It  
wasn't using its spinning attack at least. At the last moment John  
sidestepped to the left and swiped at it's hind legs as it passed him.  
The Grimm stumbled and fell. John ran forward and cut open its belly  
and backed off to a safe distance.

The boarbatusk tried to get to it's feet, but was unable to for its  
heavy wounds. Seeing that it no longer posed a threat, John came  
forward and stabbed it in the throat, ending its misery.

"Good work! You remind me of when I was young!" Professor Port  
clapped loudly. John wiped off the sweat that had started on his brow.  
He needed to hone his dexterity more if he wanted to pull these things  
off more often. "Back into position."

John did as he was told. He stood about 15 feet from the middle cage.  
He pushed the button on his arm guard and it unfolded into his shield.  
Port ripped off the tarp covering the cage, revealing a Beowolf.

"Ready, go!" The Beowolf walked out of the cage slowly, never taking  
its eyes off it's prey. John had a feeling it was sizing him up. It  
suddenly dashed forward raising it's right arm, aiming to take a chunk  
out of his left arm. John raised his sword and the blow deflected off  
the flat of his blade.

The force of the blow staggered John, temporarily making him lose  
balance. As the teen tried to regain his balance, the Beowolf smashed  
its other arm into his shield, sending John flying across the field.

The Professors moved in to stop the fight. "Hands off!" John yelled  
as he rolled to avoid being cut to ribbons. The Beowolf jumped on top  
of him, trying to slash him with its claws. John blocked the attack  
with his sheild but took a scratch to the shoulder. John rolled on his  
back and kicked the Beowolf off his chest, nocking it back. He used  
the momentum from his legs coming down to roll and get his legs under  
him.

John lunged forward and beat at the Beowolf with his shield, leaving  
a cut on the grim's chest because of its thin edge. His sword lay on  
the ground five feet away. He ran for the sword before the grim could  
regain its balance. The Beowolf regained pursuit just as John reached  
the sword.

John had discarded his shield as he ran. He picked up the sword and  
spun, throwing all his strength behind one attack.

The blade landed a solid blow on the Beowolf's neck, decapitating the  
beast. It's head rolled over and stopped at the professors feet. John  
stood over the headless corpse clutching his bleeding shoulder. "Do I  
have to fight the last one?" He asked.

Professor Port opened his mouth to speak, but Goodwitch cut him off.  
"No. You can't fight it. You passed the exam." She told Port to take  
away the last cage.

"No, wait! I can still fight. I can still fight!" John shouted. He  
readied his weapon and gave the last cage a determined stare.

"You are in no condition to continue this match, I forbid..." This  
time Professor Port cut her off.

"If he wants to fight, he can fight." He said firmly.

"But he doesn't even have his aura active! He could get killed!" She  
pointed out. They had to admit, her point was valid.

"I've come this far already." John said. "It would be a waste of  
effort to give up now. Besides," He added. "I've already died once. I am  
not going to die again this early in the game."

Goodwitch thought hard. He was supposed to fight the next grim, but  
the outcome favored him losing his life. It was a hard decision. And  
she was pretty sure the teen would cut open the cage if she refused.

"Fine." Goodwitch said in frustration. "But if you go down once, the  
fight is done. Understand!?"

"Understood." John said. He put his shield to the side. He had to  
finish this quick. _Time to play!_ He thought gleefully. He could  
finally test his semblance at full potential.

The tarp was pulled off the the third and largest cage. Inside was an  
Ursa. As the cage door started to open John activated his semblance.  
Three mirror images of himself appeared in front of him. The three in  
front charged the grim head on, bellowing as they attacked recklessly.  
The Ursa destroyed the copies in one hit and turned its attention to  
were the original had been. Just one problem. He wasn't there anymore.

While the Ursa had been distracted, John had turned into a shadow and  
piggybacked on one of the clone's shadow. When the Ursa engaged his  
clones, John had slipped into the grim's shadow. As the Ursa  
looked for him, he launched his surprise attack.

Temporarily becoming weightless, he launched himself at the back of  
the grim's neck. He jabbed his sword in, putting all of his weight  
behind the thrust.

The Ursa died instantly, falling to the ground with a thud. John, who  
was trying to pull his sword out, fell off comically. "I win." He said  
with a grin.

"That you did." A voice sounded from the top of the raisers. Ozpin  
stood with his scroll open, recording the match. "I've been here the  
whole time." He said as John opened his mouth to speak.

"Ozpin. I see you came out of hiding." Goodwitch remarked.

"Indeed I have." He said. "That was an impressive performance. You  
have proven that you are beyond the normal beginner. Do you believe  
you can keep up with the second years?" He asked John.

"No, I don't think I'm on their level yet. But I will do my best to  
keep up. I swear it." John said with a fire in his voice. Ozpin  
nodded. He could tell John spoke with complete honesty.

"Then I wish you luck." Ozpin said. "In your studies and with the  
cat." John was flustered as Ozpin left the room, and the professors  
repressed laughter didn't help.


	5. Chapter 5: A meeting and a pet

Note. I don't own anything but my character and the story line. all rights are reserved to their respected owners.

I wrote this on my ipad, so that is why the text is funny. if someone leaves a comment on how to make the text bigger, that be much obliged.

John sat on his bed cleaning and polishing his sword. Four days had  
passed since the day off the tests, and he was _Really_ bored.  
Practicing swordplay and reading could only fill so much of the day.  
He had only been alive a week and the librarians already knew him by  
name.

John sighed as he inspected his weapon. He had come to favor the  
sword over any other form of weaponry. He knew the weapon inside out  
now. _Midnight_ had been very well cared for. Mostly because there was  
little else to do, but party because never failed to please him.

The curves of the blade were elegantly forged. The shade of metal  
matched the darkest night sky. The blade was impervious to damage, so  
the surface was always smooth. And the best part was it was as light  
as a feather. And when he was fighting, it was as if the blade guided  
him through the motions.

But John wanted to be with other living beings. He sometimes talked  
with the teachers, but that wasn't as interesting as talking with  
other teens. It got to the point were Ozpin told him the airships were  
leaving for vale tomorrow and told him to go to town. He was given  
money for food, lodging, and equipment.

He set aside the sword and reached for his gun. He then proceeded to  
strip it down and clean each part. This one at least had a reason to  
be cleaned. You should always clean your fire arm before and after use  
his grandfather had once said. John would miss them for a while.

Once his work was done, he stored the weapons away. He looked at the  
clock on the wall. 7:20. The sun had yet to set. John set his alarm,  
closed the drapes, and laid down on his bed. He could stay up for a  
few more hours, but what would he do? So to pass the time he went to  
sleep.

In his dream, John found himself back in the white room in which he  
arrived at when he died. But instead of a long white table, a large  
coach occupied the space. A wooden coffee table sat in front of the  
couch. Stationed to the side was an armchair. The man of the week sat  
rather comfortably in his chair.

"Your not surprised." God noticed.

"Nah. I kind of expected you to call me earlier." John said, sitting  
on the couch.

"Have you figured out why I sent you to that school, and helped you  
thus far?" God asked. John nodded.

"I was destined for hard time in hell. But when I died, looked back  
at the one who killed me and forgave her. That is not something  
everyone can do with honesty, so you decided to test me."

"Wonderful!" God clapped his hands together and grinned. "You are a  
success! You have suffered an number of unjust torments but you do not  
hold hatred in your heart." He clapped John's shoulder and laughed  
heartedly. Then something occurred to him.

"Was I an experiment?" He asked.

God stopped laughing. He put his hands together and bowed a quick  
bow. "Forgive me, but yes. I am the one who decided your death." He  
looked John in the eye and only sincerity could be found.

"There is nothing to forgive." John said calmly. "What's done is  
done. I have learned recently that brooding over the past can cause  
more damage than it can help." The two smiled at each other. "Besides,  
there is something you can do for me."

"Oh? Another gift?"

"Not quite." John chuckled. "I owe you a drink."

The next day, John sat outside a little cafe with an oddly dressed  
God. He had swapped out his normal robe for a tee shirt and sweat  
pants. On his head he wore an orange baseball cap. And had sandals on  
his feet. If he didn't know him, John would have thought he was a  
tourist.

"Hey, I notice you never prayed back in the day. Why's that?" God  
asked. He scratched at his beard as he took a sip of his latte. He let  
out a whistle. "This stuff Is good. I should get myself an expresso  
machine in my place."

"Yeah. I was never a fan of it my self thought." John took a sip out  
of his hot chocolate. "And to answer your question, I believed there  
was a god, I just didn't know which one."

The two sat in silence, admiring what it was like to be a normal  
person. One of them was an immortal being, and the other had crossed  
dimensions. Both from other worlds. The two sat merely talking about  
God's problems and about John's new life.

"And then I posted," God said laughing. "If eve ruined the world  
for an apple, what would she do for a Klondike bar?"

John couldn't help but chuckle. That one was funny. "I had no idea  
that you would be on the internet."

"Yeah." He took a long draught of his coffee before continuing. "I am  
also the one who first caused the rumor of 2000. Even if I'm a god,  
that doesn't mean I can't have any fun."

"So you are the cause of all these false doomsday prophesies that happened?"

"No. The Myans got you good." They emptied the last of their drinks  
and John left the tip. "You mortals have it better than you know." God  
said as they walked down the street. " you don't have to listen to  
ever little argument a Christian has."

"I wouldn't have listened. A lot of Christians think that you do  
everything. They don't realize that they have power over their own  
lives." John said disdainfully. "And I personally think that if you  
don't live your life by your own choices, then your not alive at all."

"You know not everyone is like that." God said. "It's not fair to  
group everyone in one group and base them off of a certain percent."  
They passed the shop From Dust Till Dawn. John dashed into the store  
and bought a small bag full of dust in glass vials. "Why you did you  
go buy those?"

"The hand gun I wanted is pretty much useless here, so I am going to  
experiment with this." John said shaking the bag. "Watch this." He  
pored a bit of red dust in his hand and drew his sword. "Let's go  
somewhere less crowded to do this." He said in second thought.

They wandered around till they stumbled upon the docks. John drew his  
sword once more and rubbed a small amount on the blade. He had learned  
on accident with an unfortunate circumstances that his blade could  
gather and hold dust. But that was for another time.

John gave a playful twirl of the sword and then did a diagonal cut in  
the air. An ark of fire was released and was skimming about 20 feet  
into the harbor. The flame left a scorched line were it came in  
contact with the ground.

"Ever since Goodwitch activated my aura, I've discovered that I can  
change the distance and the intensity of the attack." John said as he  
put the sword away.

"Fancy your self a magician?" God said with an amused face.

"Yeah I do, actually." John said as he ruffled through the bag. He  
removed a white and a yellow vial. "If I combined these two and put  
them in a bullet, I could summon myself a ball off ice with lightning  
inside. It's like an icy lamp and looks really neat." John was about  
to show him when something small and furry brushed up against the leg.  
He jumped and dropped one of the vials. He fumbled and caught it mid  
air and looked down.

A skinny black cat was rubbing his leg, purring. It was look at him  
with pleading eyes. John stooped down and picked up the creature. He  
scratched behind its ears and it purred loudly. He looked up to  
continue talking to his companion, only to he had disappeared. Were he  
stood was a note that apologized and said he wasn't a big fan of cats.

John pocketed the note. He was disappointed that he had left without  
a goodbye, but he understood were he was coming from. Cats were a  
symbol of his mortal enemy, But John couldn't care less. The cat was  
obviously a stray, and he liked cats. He found a pet store and bought  
about dozen or so cat food cans and a bag of dry cat food.

As he was paying for the goods, his new cat on the counter, he heard  
some loud yapping from the from the front of the store. He turned  
around to see a small black and white dog charging at the counter. The  
cat arched it's back and let out a low growl.

John scooped up his cat, preventing it from making any attempt to  
attack the dog. A girl in a red hoodie rushed in. "No! No Zwei no."  
She scolded the dog. The sudden appearance of the girl had  
loosened John's grip. The cat jumped out of his hands and bopped Zwei  
three times in the nose and sat down in front of him, giving him a  
look that clearly said 'don't you dare try that again.'

Zwei laid down on his belly and gave the cat puppy dog eyes. Both the  
pet owners picked up there now docile pets. "I'm sorry." Ruby said. "I  
don't think Zwei meant any harm."

"Don't sweat it." John said. "Besides, I don't think Zwei is going to  
try it with this one again." He nodded to the cat in his arms. The cat  
showed no sign that it just had a fight.

"My names Ruby." Ruby introduced herself. She extended her hand.

"John." He said as he shook her hand. He didn't need her to introduce  
herself, but it couldn't hurt to let her know his name.

"Does your cat have a name?" She asked as they walked out of the  
store ten minutes later. John shook his head.

"I was thinking on calling her Bella." He said. John was heading to  
the park. He had no idea why Ruby was still fallowing him. "Bella the  
paw." He said as he shook one of her paws. Zwei gave a yip in  
agreement.

They arrived in the park and John went and sat down under a shady  
tree (Ruby still fallowing him). He opened a can of cat food and  
placed it in front of Bella. He had explained to Ruby that she was a  
stray and he had taken her in just today. As Bella ate her fill and  
sat on his lap, John finally asked the question.

"Why are you fallowing me still? We left the pet store fifteen  
minutes ago." He asked.

"I don't know." Ruby answer innocently. John sweat dropped. It was  
like when she fallowed Jaune when they first arrived at Beacon. "Is  
there a problem with me being here?"

"No no, that's not it." He said, tripping over himself. Bella began  
to purr, making him wonder if she was laughing at him. "You just  
reminded me of someone out of a show I used to watch."

"Oh? What show?"

"Uh, I don't remember." He expected her to question him further, but  
she seemed satisfied with the answer. He let out a silent sigh of  
relief. They sat in silence as they watched Zwei run around.

"Hey John."

"Yeah."

"How old are you?" Ruby's question caught him off guard. He should  
probably tell his before death age, but he could tell her the truth.  
He wanted her as a friend, but was it a good idea to let his secret  
out so quickly?

"Ah, why not? This could be fun." He said under his breath. Ruby gave  
him a inquisitive look. "I can tell you, but I'll need to know a few  
things first."

"Why?"

"Because I have a secret that can't get out. And you have the ability  
to help me." John explained. "But I'll give you a hint on how old I  
am." John smiled wickedly before saying his next line.

"Do you believe in ghosts?"


	6. Chapter 6: Do you beileve in ghosts?

note. I own nothing but my character and the story line. all rights to their respective owners.

I wrote this on my ipad, so its text is funny. Sorry if you think its taking to long, but what I write is highly probable

to come up again. so don't skip through.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" John asked. Ruby looked at him in a  
curious but annoyed way.

"What has this anything to do with your age."

"Just answer the darn question." This was taking longer than he had expected.

"No. Now can you answer my question?" Looked like he wasn't the only  
one getting impatient.

"Took you long enough." John said. "To answer your question, I am  
exactly one week old." Activating his semblance, he thrust his arm  
through her stomach and took her crescent rose. Before the effect  
could ware off, he extended his effect to the weapon and pulled it  
through her. Ruby had looked horrified when his arm went through her  
stomach, she was downright terrified when she saw him with her  
precious scythe.

"Give it back!" She yelled as she tackled him. He fell and, quit on  
accident, the weapon fell under him. She pummeled and batted at the  
teen in a desperate attempt to get her _Crescent Rose_ back. He would  
have thought it was funny if he was not busy fending off Ruby's  
attack. There pets sat side by side a little bit away watching them.

This would have gone on for a while if Ruby hadn't been distracted by  
a new arrival. "So this is were you went sis!" Came a loud and  
rambunctious voice. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend!" Yang had  
arrived on the scene. Both John and Ruby blushed and she got off him.

"I-it's not like that." Ruby stuttered. "He took away my scythe and I  
was trying to get it back."yang looked at John, sizing him up.

"Before you kill me, you should know exactly what I was doing." He  
held up his arms in surrender. This was so not going to plan.

Yang glared at him. "Thirty seconds. Go." Her gauntlets loaded a round each.

John started to explain as fast as humanly possible. "She asked me my  
age. In order to tell the truth, I thought it would be fun if I had a  
little demonstration. I asked if she believed in ghosts, she said no,  
I reached through her and took her weapon. She freaked out and  
attacked me and the weapon fell under me." He held his breath.

"Is this true Ruby?" Yang asked her sister. Ruby nodded. "Ok then."  
Yang's glare disappeared and was replaced by her normal smile.

"Thanks for not murdering me Yang. Dying kind of hurts." John said.  
He lowered his arms.

"No problem. My name's..." Yang trailed off, finally realizing what  
he just said. "How did you know my name?"

"I knew about both of you when I was born." John said. They finally  
got to the part were he could have some fun. "You see, I..." He was  
cut off as his scroll began to ring. He took the call. "What's up  
Ozpin?"

The girls jaws dropped. Did he just say Ozpin? Sure enough, as John  
turned his back to them the sisters could see their headmaster on his  
scroll's screen. "I have some news you might enjoy." He told John.

"Oh? And what's that? You already let me in two years early." John  
claimed as he scratched the back of his head.

"Your results have been calculated. We're putting you into second  
year." Ozpin shifted his head to the side. "I see you have met two of  
them." John laughed at this.

"Yeah, first meeting and there both trying to send me back to the  
realm of the dead. I just hope Blake doesn't try to kill me to." He  
joked.

"Don't pet her and you'll be fine." Ozpin gave a rare grin. "I'll  
leave you to the explanation John. I'll see you all at beacon  
tomorrow." He hung up before John could complain.

A hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder to  
see it was Ruby who had him. "Are you going to explain please." This  
was obviously not a question, even when she said it so cutely.

"I was anyway, so please." He gestured to her hand that was very  
close to activating her weapon "No more weapons." They agreed. John  
return to his seat and the girls sat in front of him. He looked around  
for Bella but couldn't find her. He was about to call out for her when  
a stick fell on his head.

"Zwei?" They all looked up to find both the pets in the tree. Bella  
had a smug look on her face. Zwei had his usual happy face.

"Yup. That's them." John said, a slight laugh in his voice. "And they  
appear to be friends now." Yang looked at them in wonder.

"How did they get up there?" She asked, but John waved it off.

"Doesn't mater. What's done is done." He said. He had a sudden sense  
of déjà vu. "I have some questions to answer." He sighed and laid back  
against the tree."So let's start."

"My story starts on a night alone. I was watching a new favorite show  
on Netflix."

"What's Netflix?" Ruby asked. Yang hushed her.

John waved it off. "Anyway, the next day I was biking to school with  
this new show on my mind and some idiot on a phone ran me over. Well,  
I forgave her. What's done is done."

"But wait, your not dead." Yang punched him in the face to emphasis  
her point. It hurt.

"I was!" John rubbed his face. Auras help, but they don't stop  
pain. "I met the God of my world and he sent me here! I died early,  
forgave the person who killed me, and was given a wish. So I came  
here." He was practically yelling at the end. Tears of pain were in  
his eyes. "And before you ask, Ozpin has already. The name of the show  
I watched was RWBY. The main characters are Ruby Rose, Yang Xiong  
Long, Weiss Schnee, and Blake Belladonna. Supporting characters are  
Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, Juane, Penny. Cardin's an asshole, Blake is a cat,  
Juane has no clue that Pyrrha likes him, and the main bad guys are  
Cinder, Emerald, Torchwick, and that Mercury guy."

One word summed up their reaction. Overkill. Completely fried. It  
took them a few minutes to process the information. He couldn't help  
but smile as they slowly realized everything he said. "How much do you  
know?" Yang said suspiciously. John gave a wicked smile and vanished  
into thin air.

In reality, John just turned invisible, turned weightless, and  
jumped. He landed him in the tree and smiled at their reaction. They  
were simply in a panic. _There should be a limit to all the pranks I_  
 _can pull now._

Giving his best Cheshire grin, he reappeared. " _Wouldn't you like to_  
 _know?_ " He said.

In an instant, both girls had their weapons trained on him. "Relax  
guys. The show was very PG13." They calmed down at this. John grabbed  
the pets and floated down. "I am going to have a whole lot of fun at  
Beacon."

"Are we going to be targets of your 'fun' are we?" Yang asked. John  
broke down in laughter.

"Oh hell no! You will get the playful banter, but nothing mean. I'll  
save that abuse for Cardin." John said. They laughed along at this  
one. "Just don't tell Cardin or Blake."

"Why Blake?" Ruby asked.

"Don't worry. Think about what Ozpin said." Yang's face lit up like a  
Christmas tree. Even more so when she saw him tie a black ribbon  
around Bella's neck. On the ribbon was her ID.

"Bella, Belladonna. I see what you did there." She nudged John in the  
shoulder. John had just realized the connection. He tried to deny it  
but she wouldn't have any of it. "You haven't even met her and your  
hitting on her? What a pervert." Yang teased.

"Fine, believe what you want. I name Bella after one of my Pokemon,  
not Blake." They must have seen his argument as a feeble excuse, but  
everything he said was true. Little did he know, someone was recording  
the whole experience.

After Yang stopped teasing him, John filled them in to what had  
happened since he had been born. Then he asked how their summer had  
been.

"Oh you know." Ruby said. "Hanging out with the girls, doing our own  
thing. The usual." He looked at Yang. She shook her head. She  
obviously didn't want him to know everything. Especially about her  
mom. They talked for an hour or so, generally becoming good friends.  
He has happy they believed that he actually did die.

Darkness had fallen. The moon was out. The girls headed home while  
John headed for the airships. He showed the guards his scroll and he  
passed. He fed Bella some more cat food and laid down on the metal  
floor. He had spent to much money to afford a room at a hotel,so this  
had to do.

When all the food was gone, Bella curled up on his chest and went to  
sleep. "Good night, little one." He said as he fell asleep. John  
didn't hear the sound of red tennis shoes running away with the video  
on scroll.

The next day John was flying back to beacon. Accompanying him were 2  
dozen or so students on the airship. There was nobody he knew on the  
plane. He sat looking out the window while playing with Bella when a  
boy walked up to him. "This your cat?" The teen asked. John nodded.  
"My names Lucas Cain. You?"

"John. This one is Bella." John said. Lucas sat down on the bench  
next to John. He was an average size. He had a tannish hair color and  
unusual red eyes. He had a fall jacket on and blue jeans. "Hey, is  
that your natural eye color? I've never met someone with red eyes."

"Naw. It's just my semblance. I can change the way my eyes see."  
Lucas explained. His eyes changed to a light green. "This is my normal  
eye color."

"That's pretty amazing." John admitted. "Can I assume red was for  
infrared vision?" Lucas nodded, impressed. "I got a challenge for you.  
Can you see this?" He vanished.

"Oh dude! That's even more impressive." His eyes changed to red.  
"Yup. I can see you. Semblance?" He asked.

John reappeared. "Yes. What year are you in?"

"First. You?"

"Second." An idea just occurred to him. "Hey, you want to help me  
with something? There is this jerk at the school who is always picking  
on faunus, and our combined semblances could teach him a lesson."

"Why not?" Lucas said with a grin.

"Ok. Here's the plan."

Let the Cardin games begin! Oh, this was going to be good.


	7. Chapter 7: well deserved punishment

Note. I own nothing but my character and the storyline. I am happy to say that I finally found a better way to upload this from my iPad. I spend a lot of time researching the recent events and updates to get as much of this correct as possible. All rights go to their respective owners. RIP Monty Oum.

John walked off the airship a happy teen. The next time Cardin picked on someone he was in for an awful surprise. Part of him would be dearly pleased if Cardin doesn't call for the treatment, but the other knew that would never happen and couldn't wait to be released on him.

"Hey John!" He turned around. He saw Ruby and the rest of her team coming out of an airship two spaces down. John nudged Lucas and nodded to them. Bella was draped across Lucas's shoulder, asleep. They waited for the group to approach patiently.

"Hey Ruby, what's up?" He said as they began to walk to beacon. He was a bit surprised that the rest of team RWBY didn't find this interaction unusual.

"Just wanted to say hi." She said cheerily. "Who's this?" She gestured to Lucas. Bella was now awake and was investigating the scents of team RWBY. Blake picked her up to prevent her from being stepped on.

Lucas introduced himself. "My names Lucas. I'm new to the school, so you five can show me the ropes." John laughed at this and clapped his back. "What?"

"Nothing. Just a story to tell you later." They walked into the main hall. Weiss went over and was talking with Pyrrha and Yang disappeared to talk with some of her other friends. John was fallowing Blake because she had his cat while Ruby and Lucas got to know each other. Eventually Ozpin and Goodwitch took the stage and called them together.

"To all returning students, welcome back. To all new students, welcome. The halls of Beacon academy are graced with new students once again this year. Here at this school, we will teach you how to be the finest hunters and huntresses in all of vale. I entrust you will not let me down." Ozpin continued on with his speech for several more minutes, ending in a round of applause from the students.

Once the speech was done John retrieved Bella from a slightly disappointed Blake. "You can come and visit us anytime you want." He told her. He handed her a spare key and headed to drop off the goods from the previous day.

He opened his room door and set his things down on one of the beds with Bella and started to put the items away. His dust went into his desk, he put the cat food into one of the drawers, and put a food dish and water bowl in one of the corners. He planed on getting a cat tree next time he got the money. He stashed catnip with the cat food. He then set up the litter box in the bathroom.

Bella hopped off the bed and was exploring around under the beds when John had finished. He tempted her out with a cat toy and brought her to the litter box. To his delight she knew what to do.

"Good girl. You weren't always a stray were you?" He talked to the cat as he lay a small amount of nip on the ground. He set to work maintaining his weapons as he watched Bella roll around.

He had finished with his sword and had begun to work on his gun when there was a nock on the door. "It's open." He called out.

Blake entered the room hesitantly, not quite sure what to expect. She found John scrubbing out the barrel of his gun on his bed and Bella purring with specs of catnip stuck in her black coat. John smiled as her bow twitched at the scent of catnip.

"Hey-oh. You come for Bella?" He gestured to the cat. She nodded and he tossed her the cat toy. It was one of those ones with a toy mouse at the end of a string attached to a plastic wand. "Go ahead. Just watch the claws." He told her.

Blake learned the hard way that John wasn't joking. At one point Bella missed the toy and went flying at her leg, digging her claws into the cloth on impact. Blake yelped in pain and the cat zoomed up onto the window sill. Little droplets of red appeared on Blake's leg before the wound was healed by her aura. John handed her a tissue to clean up the blood.

"I told you to be careful of the claws." He told her as he assembled the gun. He place the firearm in his dresser. "I'm judging by the fact that your here right now that Ruby and Yang have already told you who I am. Can you tell me how much they told you?" He asked as he scooped up Bella. She playfully attacked his hand but he showed no sign of pain as she scratched him.

"Just your name and how you met. They said that you were a very interesting person." Blake told him. "Is it true that you stole Ruby's scythe through her stomach?"

"Oh yeah." He said with a big grin. "The look on her face was as if she had seen a ghost. Which, technically, she had." John chuckled. Blake just looked at him strange. They must not have told her. He realized. He shook his head. "I'll tell you that story if you promise to be my friend."

"That makes you sound like a creep." She said.

"Well my story is a secret. I'm only going to trust my friends with this knowledge." He told her. Bella bit his hand and scampered off. Blake picked her up and began to pet her.

"Fine, I'll bite. But i still don't get why me being your friend is a requirement." So John told her. He told her the same story as he told the others, minus the part were he knew she was a faunus and had a crush on her. Blake sat quietly throughout the whole deal. John could tell her perspective of him changed by the end.

"So now I'm here." He finished. He checked his watch. "Or more exactly, I'm at dinner. Race you!" Blake blinked in surprise as he ran through the wall. She came out of the room just in time to see him jump down the stairs. She gave a look of longing back at were the smell of catnip was originating then closed and locked the door.

John had found a seat with team RWBY and JNPR and was attempting to out eat Nora when Blake arrived at the table. "I got ten on John!" Yang said. The speed of the two teens eating easily out paced everyone there.

"I'll take that action. Twenty on Nora!" Juane said as he raised the pot. John was trailing behind 3 plates to 4. Nora's spot was covered in specs of food but surprisingly John's was rather clean. Blake sat on the other side of Ruby to avoid flying food.

"Give up, skinny boy?" Nora asked with her mouth full.

"In your dreams pinky." John said half way through his next plate. The score had evened to 7-7 when a commotion sounded out across the room. He turned around to see Cardin holding up a little rabbit boy by his ears.

"Let go of my little brother!" Velvet cried as she beat useless at the jerks back. He just laughed and shrugged her off. Yang was about to get up and beat the crap out of him when John stopped her.

"Stay. I need you guys to guard my body. Me and Lucas have a plan." John told them in a hushed voice. Once he made sure they wouldn't interfere, he promptly fell asleep. _Lucas, get ready!_ He called out telepathically. He Jumped from his body to Cardin's.

 _What the?_ Cardin thought as he felt a pressure on his head. He dropped the faunus boy and grimaced in pain. His body was no longer in his control.

 _I got you now!_ John said gleefully. Lucas came and led Velvet and her brother away as John forced Cardin to climb onto the table. "I am king of the world!" John forced Cardin to yell. "Bow before me and my pathetic excuse for a brain! Look upon my glorious stupidity! I am king! King of wasted potential! All may laugh at me, as I so willingly laughed at you!"

The hall was silent for a moment, and then a dull roar of laughter boomed forth. Cardin Winchester, publicly embarrassing himself? This was going to be the talk of the school for days. Even Velvet couldn't help but crack a smile. John forced Cardin to take a bow and fall off the table, leaving his body before impact.

John woke up in his body about 10 seconds later. He was greeted with a slap on the back from a grinning Yang. "That was the greatest show I've seen in a long time. Well done." Team JNPR heartily agreed.

"I don't know what you're talking about." John said with a grin. He looked over his shoulder at Lucas. While John had been publicly embarrassing Cardin, he had been blocking off the rest of team CRDL. He was now talking with the rabbit siblings at their table.

 _Did it go well on your end?_ He asked Lucas telepathically. Lucas nodded. _You can think and I'll hear it_. John informed him. _So any injuries I should know about?_

 _Nope. Aura healed the bruise that I should have, but talking with a cute girl is so worth it._ John chuckled. Boys will be boys.

The rest of the evening went over well. Due to the massive amount of energy controlling Cardin, John was pretty much starving. The finishing score was 12-19 plates of food, John winning by a landslide. Money was exchanged and Nora had to take all the dishes to the kitchen.

After dinner concluded, the first years stayed in the cafeteria while the other students left for their rooms. John stayed with Lucas long enough to watch Goodwitch move the tables before he went back to his room. Classes started tomorrow and he needed sleep.

John lay down on his bed, the events of the day finally taking a toll on his body. All in all, he had made the friends of his dreams, and Cardin had the worst dinner of his life. He smiled as he remembered how Blake was not frightened by his abilities. He rolled over and remembered that under an hour ago she had sat right there.

 _Soon._ He promised her. Soon I will make this world easier for you and all the faunus of vale. He would fight for what he wanted from the bottom of his heart. And what he wanted the most, was for Blake to smile. He had no idea that his silent oath wasn't so silent for a certain girl down the hall.


	8. Chapter 8:Sharing of secrets

John sat in the back of Dr. Oobleck's class, cheek in palm. Oobleck was in his usual caffeine fueled lecture. Normally he wouldn't mind the lessons, quite the opposite, but he had located an interesting book and seriously wanted to read it.

He was daydreaming about sitting in his usual tree with his book when Oobleck called on him. "John! Can you tell me what Grimm are drawn to since you seem to be paying very close attention to what we're saying on the subject of mountain Glenn."

John straitened up before speaking. "Grimm are drawn to negative emotions and energy, and mountain Glenn being such a large city there was bound to a lot of negative energy built up over the years." Oobleck nodded, satisfied that he was paying attention. _In season two, episode nine: search and destroy, you and team RWBY take a trip to this location and discover a hide out of the white fang and put a stop to their plan to over run the city with Grimm. I should also note that they did succeed to a degree._ John rattled off to himself in boredom.

The bell rang to signal the end of class. John darted through the crowd in an attempt to get to lunch first. He was just finishing his pile of food and dashed away before they could start a conversation, book in hand. He was lying down to read his book just 10 minutes after he got out of Oobleck's class.

Why such a rush? Because John was not a fan of stoping halfway through a chapter. The more time he had to read was more pages he could get done. He wasn't a big fan of romance novels, but he would never turn down a really good fantasy.

John finally opened the book and started to read. The book was about a young boy who found a massive egg that hatched into a deep blue scaled sky dragon. The boy lived in a poor rural farming community and raised the dragon hidden in the woods. When the village found out, they attacked the dragon and forced the boy to flee.

He was deep in the story when he heard a familiar voice from below. "Whatcha doing up there?" He looked down to find Blake watching him.

"Reading, Why?" John waved his book in the air, showing her that he was indeed reading.

"We're expected in Professor Peach's class in seven minutes!" She called up to him. John checked his watch. They did have afternoon classes soon.

John dropped out of his tree, landing on his feet perfectly. As a child he always enjoyed jumping of the swings, so he was really good at landing. "Thanks for the heads up Blake." He told her. They started to walk to class together. "How'd you find me?"

"The direction that you ran from the lunch room." She told him, making it sound like common knowledge. They walked through the halls, Blake giving him a list of books that she would recommend. One very notable title wasn't on the list though.

"Wait, shouldn't _Ninjas of love_ be on that list?" Blake went beat red in no time flat.

"How did you know about that?" She demanded. John cursed himself for his slip up. He had left out the fact that the whole reason for coming to this world when he told her of his rebirth, so she didn't know about the show. He had done this so she wouldn't know he knew her secret. He wanted her to reveal it on her own when she counted him as a good friend.

"I have my sources." He said evasively. "But I will say with all honesty that it wasn't your team that told me." He said quickly. Blake's bow had twitched and her face had darkened, but her face was still red.

"So anyway." Blake tried to change the topic. "What kind of books have you read?"

"Mainly fantasy." He let the topic slide, making a mental note of the fact she was cute when there was something to hide. "I wasn't a big fan of romance novels back in my previous life. They all just seemed to work for that bed scene. I mean, come on! There's more to romance than just sex."

"Yeah, I guess your right on those books." Blake agreed. "But there are some that are good. Trust me, I've read them." She secretly enjoyed both the good and the bad ones, but she wasn't going to tell him that.

They walked into professor Peach's class about a minute and a half before the bell was due to ring. John took his customary seat in the back while Blake joined the rest of her team. John laid back and opened his book. He noticed that Yang shot a quick grin in his direction and opened a mental link.

 _What?_ He asked her silently. She simply grinned and gave him one of the best lines he heard all day.

 _Wouldn't you like to know?_ They both laughed. Blake looked at the two of them in confusion. John let her in on the conversation. Only then did Yang make it clear that it was a mistake. _How did the date go?_

 _Yang!_ John closed the link down and turned deep red, hiding behind his book. He was saved from the uncomfortable conversation by a well timed bell. He was pretty sure neither of the girls were going to forget what just transpired. _You are so dead when I get my hands on you!_ He sent a mental message to Yang.

The rest of the day John couldn't make eye contact with Blake. After each class he promptly disappeared. Literally. He was very grateful for his semblance. He had modeled the idea off of the fact that he had died, hence Specter, but it came in real handy when running away. He was so embarrassed that he even stayed invisible during dinner, sneaking his food away to his tree.

He left his tray outside of the cafeteria when he was done and headed for his dorm. He still had to feed Bella. As he walked, John though of his actions. He now felt ashamed of avoiding Blake all day. It wasn't fair the way he avoided her for no apparent reason.

John was still in thought on how to make it up to Blake when he arrived at his room. "Bella, I'm back!" He called out, then stopped. The sight that greeted him was one that he soooooo did not want to happen.

Lying down on his bed was to 2 cats high on catnip. Blake was rubbing her cheek with Bella's, both of them were purring fiercely. Catnip was scattered all over the room. The bag of cat food had been opened and now sat next to an overflowing bowl. _At least I know how this happened._

Blake noticed John's entry and got an evil look in her eye. With unnatural speed she lept forward and landed a heavy blow on the side of John's head, sending him flying across the room. He landed sprawled out like road kill, then Blake pounced on him.

"I am not a toy!" He yelled as loud as he could. Blake bit him hard on the shoulder, still purring. He cried out in pain. He rolled over, pushing Blake off of him. She jumped forward and knocked him down again.

"Come on!" Blake purred. "It's no fun when you don't fight back!" John finally understood. He had thought she was just mad at him, but she just was in a playful mood.

 _Damb catnip._ "Fine, but you asked for it!" He tossed her off again. Blake tried to jump on him again, but he rolled this time. It was John's turn to pounce. He pinned her arm behind her back, pressing all his weight down on her so she couldn't get away. To his surprise, she rolled over under him, breaking his grip. She landed half a dozen blows before he could pin down her arms. "I win." He said smugly.

Blake struggled against his grip, but he held her down just barely. "Ok, let me go."

"No. I cannot do that."

"And why not?"

"Because you are still high on catnip." She struggled, attempting to roll over and throw him off, but John lied down on her. He held her there for almost 15 minutes before she settled down.

When Blake was finally released, John made her sit on one of the beds while he vacuumed. She sat silently, fidgeting slightly in embarrassment. John stored the vacuum in the closet and sat down on the bed opposite of her.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted." Blake said, not daring to look at him in the eye. "I came to feed Bella because you hadn't returned, and one thing led to another..." She trailed off, the rest of her sentence apparent. Blake let out a deep sigh. "You see, the truth is, I'm a.."

"Faunus." John interjected. Blake nodded still not looking up. He walked over and sat down next to her, placing a hand on her thigh reassuringly. "Your not the only one with secrets Blake. I think it's time for you to know mine." Blake looked up, meeting John's eye for the first time since she broke out of the catnip.

"And what could your secret be?" She asked. _Does this mean he doesn't care about me being a faunus?_

John gave her a warm smile. "The truth is, I've known all along. I wanted to tell you this when you opened up and told me yourself, but that's not how it happened did it?" He took his hand off her leg and intertwined his fingers. "The reason I was born into this world is because I asked for it. On the night before I died, I watched this show. You should be able to recognize what this show was about." Their eyes met. "The name of the show was RWBY."

John came clean and told her everything. The reason he got in to beacon, the reason why he and the sisters on his team got along so well, and the motive behind him coming to the world to begin with. "That's why I was avoiding you today. I thought you had figured out the way I feel about you."

Blake was silent. The weight of what he just told her slowing her down. _So, he came to this world because he wanted me? But why?_ Was she really so attractive that she could draw a boy from another dimension to come live in such a dangerous place?

"I know I probably seem creepy now, but don't hate me. Please. I'm just a hopeless guy with a crush." John pleaded, taking her silence as a bad thing.

"Why?" She was so quiet that he could barely hear her.

"What?"

"Why did you come for a girl like me? Didn't you say you hated the stories that rush the bed scene?" She wasn't looking at him.

John opened his mouth but no words came out. He tried again only to produce a gurgled noise. He let out a sigh. There was nothing of the sorts in his reason.

"Well?" Blake said impatiently. She got up and walked over to the door.

"I didn't lie." John said. He rested his arms on his knees. "In the show you were attractive, yes, but if I was going for that don't you think I would be after Yang? I chose you because I could relate to you. I know what it's like to picked on and shunned because of who you are."

Blake took her hand off the door knob and returned in front of him. He continued. "For the longest time I was the smallest and weakest of the pack. Kids would gang up on me. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't hit them. That all changed when I grew. Nobody was going to pick on the six foot tall kid now were they?" Bella jumped up onto his lap. He pet the back of her ears. This pleased the furry mistress. "Same as you. I was treated better out of fear instead of respect. The only difference was there was always that one guy that reached out for me as a kid. Now I wanted it to be my turn to supply support."

John smiled weakly. She now knew more about him than anyone in the world did. John honestly wouldn't blame her if she didn't believe him and avoided him for the rest of his life. But to his surprise, she didn't.

"Your a good kid you know." She said. "Just, don't expect a date, ok? We've only known each other for a week."

"To be completely fair, I've known you since you first stepped foot into Beacon." John said. "But I will gladly be friends before ever considering I have a chance of being your boyfriend." He held out a hand and she took it. "Friends?"

"Friends." They smiled. This reminded John of how he made his first freinds when he was just a kid.

 _ **CLICK! To be continued...**_


	9. Chapter 9: an adventful night

_CLICK..._

Blake spun around. Yang stood in the door way with her scroll open, a picture of John and Blake holding hands and smiling. "What's up?" Yang said with a mischievous smile. She looked down at the picture. "Yup. I'll Yang onto this. Title it first date success." Before either one could tell her off,Yang took off down the hall.

Blake took off after her, John fallowing close behind. They were both so focused on catching Yang no one remembered to close the door. They chased the blonde down the hall as she laughed at their reactions. They caught her 6 minutes later at the airship docks. Blake had chased her around the platforms and John ambushed her as she tried to run back to the school.

"You'll thank me later, promise!" Yang exclaimed as they dragged her through the hall. Blake had removed the photo off of the scroll as soon as they caught Yang. They both figured she was the kind of person to start spreading unwanted rumors to friends.

 _I'll thank you later, if you included me in that email._ John told her secretly. Yang gave a wink. They reached the stairs and let her go so she wouldn't get hurt going up. John raced Yang to the top, barely winning.

"But seriously Blake." John said as she joined them at the top. "Don't you think we should give yang some credit? She is kind of the whole reason we had fun tonight. You can't deny that."

Blake shrugged. "I guess. But I just can't shake the feeling that things are going to be awkward now. If she hadn't caused this, you would still sit squarely in friend zone. Now I'm wondering if you were just trying to get close to me." There was a doubtful look on her face.

"Relax, I'm not making any sort of move anytime soon. Your my friend Blake. I would rather be friends if that meant you were more comfortable. Besides," he gave her a slight grin "your into Sun, right?"

"No!" She denied in a hurry. A slight blush crept into her cheeks.

"Adorable!" He said as he ruffled up her hair. "The show only went up to the events at the dance. More might have been added after I died, but I will never get to see what happened."

The trio arrived outside of team RWBY's room to find the door open and a slight laughter from inside. There was the noise of a small bell and scampering feet. Upon entry they found Ruby, Weiss and team JNPR sat in a circle on the floor. Pyrrha held John's cat toy in hand, a content smile on her face. And in the middle of the circle was...

"Bella! How did you get here?" John's sudden outburst made the group jump. Bella seized the moment to pounce on her prey, beating the feathers and bell to death with her hind paws.

"Is this your cat?" Pyrrha asked, picking up the black cat. John nodded. "You left your door open and she was dragging the toy down the hall."

"Ah. Thank you." John said to the group. "We've had an, um, adventful night." He and the girls joined the circle and John began to drag his hand on the ground, rapidly taping his fingers whenever it stopped. Bella jumped at it and he skillfully dodged and flipped her onto her back, proceeding to scratch her belly.

A few of the group awed at the display. Bella nipped his arm and he released her. "How did you do that? Could you teach me please?" Ruby begged.

"Sure just don't try it on Blake." John taught her the movements and she put to much force behind it and tossed Bella into the air. Blake caught her. "You have to roll the cat, not throw her." John scolded Ruby.

"How did you get so good?" Ruby sulked. She made a face that probably would melt her fanboys. He gave her a pat on the head.

 _"Wouldn't you like to know?"_ He replied with a cheshire grin. Yang gave a laugh, earning a confused look from the rest of the group. Ruby grinned.

"That's you trademark line now, isn't it?" She asked.

"Probably. It a fond memory."

"Didn't we come really close to shooting you?" Yang reminded him. John just laughed. The group spent the night talking and joking around. Bella fell asleep around an hour later. Team JNPR left shortly after.

"Well I'm off to bed." John announced as he stood up. "Blake, I'll be taking.." He turned to find that she had nodded off, his cat in her arms. He wiped out his scroll and took a picture. Yang clapped him on the back. "What? This is too good to pass up. The girl I like is asleep with my cat." He sent the picture to yang and closed the scroll. "Can I trust you guys to take care of Bella?" They nodded. "Then don't wake them." And he left.

Before going to bed, John printed the picture and pinned it to the wall. He stared at it fondly as he drifted to sleep. (Change perspectives.)

Back in team RWBY's room, the girls were debating if they should move Blake to her bed. "I don't know. She looks comfortable." Weiss mused. Blake was smiling slightly as she slept against the wall, Bella sleeping in her arms.

"But we have combat practice tomorrow." Ruby pointed out. "Wouldn't she wake up all sore?"

"Just leave her." Yang waved from her bed. "Besides, John said not to wake them. She would definitely react if we moved her."

"And why do we have to listen to him." Weiss said flatly.

"Because he asked nicely?" Ruby said. "We owe him nothing, but just look at them and tell me he wasn't think about them." She hopped up into her bed, taking Yang's side on not moving Blake.

Weiss gave on more glance at the faunus and her feline friend before giving in. "Fine. But just because Blake wouldn't want to be moved." She turned out the light and got into bed.

It was an about five in the morning when Blake awoke. A chorus of pops sounded out as she stretched her back. There was a soft heat on her lap. She looked down to find that Bella was awake and purring.

"Hey." She cooed, petting Bella's head. "What are you still doing here?" A look around the room told her she was the only one awake. She got up and went to the bathroom, much to Bella's displeasure. The cat followed her and circled around next to the bath, then sat down and stared at Blake.

"You got to go to the bathroom to, huh?" Blake got a meow in response. "Give me a moment." When she finished with her "business" Blake grabbed her keys and Bella and walked down the hallway. She silently unlocked the door and slid in. She put Bella on the floor, and the cat made a mad dash for the bathroom. Blake, her mission accomplished, was about to leave, but was stopped by the sight of a piece of paper pinned to the wall.

It was the picture of Blake and Bella. She smiled slightly at how the camera had caught her good side. She looked back at the dark haired teen on the bed. He had his arm wrapped under the pillow in which his head rested. He had much the same peaceful expression as Blake did in the picture.

Bella came out of the bathroom and jumped onto his back. John gave a hum, partly awakened. "No claws, Bella." He mumbled, barely awake. Bella gave out a meow and he fell back asleep, failing to notice Blake was in the room.

 _Maybe he is a good guy after all._ Blake thought. "No claws, Bella." She said with humor as she left the room.


	10. Chapter 10: Nora finally broke some legs

"Today we will be doing single battles. I am willing to take volunteers, or I will have to draw names." Goodwitch stood in the middle of the arena, addressing the second years in the risers. John stifled a yawn. He relatively enjoy this class, but it was boring to wait his turn. He had a policy to fight people his strength or better, but he learned it was a mistake to volunteer first. Someone way to strong could volunteer to take you on.

the first mach was Sky Lark vs. Ren. Winner, Ren. The next match was Ruby vs some boy he didn't know. And on it went. John was hoping to fight Weiss, seeing she was skilled in swordplay. But of course, fate had other plans.

20 Minutes until class ended, and no one volunteered. "Ok then." Goodwitch said, scrolling through her scroll. "The next match will be..."

"John Straiter vs. Nora Valkyrie."

John let out a sigh and came down from his perch at the top of the risers. Not the person he wanted to fight, but it would have to do. He and Nora stood about 20 feet away from each other on the field. John drew his blade and got into ready position. Nora had her weapon in grenade launcher form.

"You better run, solo. I'm going to break your legs!" Nora taunted. She obviously thought he was weaker because he didn't have a team.

"In your dreams, Pinky!" John returned. A bit of trash talk helped get him into the fighting mood.

"Ready, begin!" The match started. Nora didn't miss a beat. She let out a salvo of pink explosives in his direction. John activated his semblance and the projectiles flew strait threw him. He then turned invisible. Nora responded by blasting the area around were he had vanished. John stumbled and became visible. Nora took the advantage and charged in with her hammer ready. John raised sword and guarded against the blow, causing him to fly backwards and hit the wall.

John let out a groan. Out of the corner of his eyes John took note that 42% of his aura had left him. _Damb, almost half in one blow._ That meant the match would be over if he got hit again. He split himself into 3 and charged, weaving around with his clones. JOHN USED DOUBLE TEAM!

Nora was disoriented. _Was he always able to that?_ She snapped back into focus as the middle one sped up and jumped in the air raising his sword above his head. She swung her hammer in an upper ark, colliding with John and reducing him to dust. Just as the blow landed, the John on the right dashed forward and landed a cut on her side. Nora spun to the side and and smashed her weapon into his back, sending him flying. The figure slammed into the wall and slid down.

"I win!" She exclaimed. Then the unexpected happened. John dissolved into shadow. _She had only struck down his clones._ A laugh echoed through the room as she looked around, trying to pinpoint her missing opponent.

"Good fight! But you can't hit what you can't see." A hand holding a bone white dagger appeared out of her shadow and landed to quick cuts on her feet before retreating into the black. Nora brought her hammer down on her shadow, but to no avail.

John launched himself out of Nora's shadow right before she could land the hit. It wouldn't have hurt him, but he could use the chance and get behind her. He landed 2 hits before she could respond. He turned weightless and attempted to jump over her.

Nora got a lucky shot. She smashed John in the ribs, nocking him out of the air. She then used her hammer as a golf club and hit him skyward. Without any weight, John accelerated faster than normal towards the wall. He tried to get his feet under him, only realizing to late what would happen if he stuck the landing.

A loud snap sounded through the room, fallowed shortly by a scream of agony. John was falling towards the ground face first, aura completely gone and semblance on cool down. He shielded his head with his arms, hoping that 2 more broken limbs would allow him to live one more day.

Goodwitch sprung into action. Using her _telekinesis_ , she slowed down John's fall, having him land gently instead of becoming a human pancake. John laid on the ground, extreme pain shooting through his lower body. The last thing he heard was Goodwitch ordering someone to come down and help transport him to the infirmary.

The room was white.

"Welcome back." God's voice came from directly behind him.

"Yeah. I guess it's past time for a visit." He realized his legs no longer hurt. "How bad was it?"

"Two broken legs." A pair of wooden chairs appeared out of nowhere. They took a seat. "You seriously should have died there."

John gave a hearty laugh. "That's probably going to happen a lot. It wasn't paradise you sent me to."

"So true. But remember, it was your choice."

"And I don't regret it." It was true. John truly felt blessed to be given the chance to live in the kingdom of Vale.

God leaned forward the friendly aura that he was giving off turned serious. "I didn't call you here to have idle chit chat. I called you to give you a warning. I have foreseen that your quest for the cat girl will bring you more pain than pleasure especially at the end. What you told in your heart will no doubt be achieved, and when that happens, we will meet again for one last time."

"Thanks for the heads up. But I would prefer we keep in touch. We're friends, right?" There was a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"If only that could change what would come to pass. It is rare for a mortal to care about a God as if they were another human."

John let out a sigh. "I treat any living being the way I believe they should be treated. No one has a right to have power, influence, and love from the get go. Those things are earned. The only birth right anyone really has is the right to be themselves."

"Too bad you weren't one of my followers. Your mind is more mature than it should be." The room began to fade, as if someone had put a film over his eyes. "We'll meet again, John. But for now, you must make up."

"This is going to hurt, isn't it?" God nodded. John grinned. "See you on the other side."

The first thought that John had when he woke up was **ow.** His legs didn't hurt as bad as they did before, but they felt as if someone had removed the bones and replaced them with bricks. He groaned as he waited for his vision to clear. He found himself laying on a bed in a sterile room. At the foot of the bed sat a foldable wheelchair. The nurse was across the room, checking on another patient who had an impressive cut on his shoulder.

"It's about time you woke up." He turned his head to the right. Blake and Nora sat next to his bed. Bella was with them too.

"How long was I out?" John was really hungry. There was no iv drip, so he couldn't have been out to long.

"About eight hours." Nora said, then added sheepishly; "I'm sorry I broke your legs."

"I kind of had it coming." John said scratching his head. "Either of you have any food? I'm starving."

Blake's mouth dropped open. "You have broken legs! You should be in so much pain, let alone be thinking about food!"

"I'll take that as a no." He tried to drag himself across the bed, but gave up when the pain got to much. "Girls, a little help? I can grit my teeth all I want, but I'm not getting to that chair without a bit of hell." They had not yet put his legs in casts yet, just set them in splints. That was going to make it difficult.

Instead of helping him up, Blake punched him in the chest, knocking him down. "Dinner is already done, you fool! Were do you think your going?"

"Hey, what do you think your doing?" The nurse to the rescue. "Don't go injuring my patients more that they already have been!" She swatted Blake back away from the bed with a clipboard.

"He tried to get out the bed, mam." Blake explained. The girls explained what had happened, and John felt as if he was now facing 3 opponents in this argument than 2.

"You should stay in bed, mr. Straiter. We can't put your casts on until tomorrow. You in pink!" Nora jumped. The nurse handed her a paper. "Take the kitchen, will you? I have a feeling they will have a midnight visitor if you don't."

Nora left. Blake hesitated, not sure if she should follow or stay. The answer was given when she was told to sit down. John gave her a quick smile.

"Now that she's gone," The nurse looked over her shoulder to make sure that no one was listening. "Ozpin dropped by earlier. He told me your story and explained why you don't have a medical history. This is why we couldn't give you painkillers." She looked at Blake, then said. "I have run your request by him. He says he will allow it, but I am still compelled to ask why."

"Because he isn't the only one who lives in that room and will need to be taken care of. Bella needs a caretaker too." As in response to this statement, Bella jumped off her lap and onto John's bed, causing him to yelp in pain. This helped prove Blake's point. "If I'm not around, who knows how much trouble she can cause."

"Wait, what?" John looked between the 2 girls in confusion. "Blake is my caretaker?"

The nurse frowned. "Is there a problem with that?" Blake looked apprehensive, wondering why he would object.

John gave a boyish grin. "No mam. I trust her in my room then I would trust my own family."

sorry its its taking a long time between uploads. I have a lot of ideas but no real story line. But this is really important for time to come, if you catch my drift.


	11. Chapter 11: the unbeatable cripple

Over the next week Jon learned that Blake was not a morning person. He also learned a very funny, and dangerous, way to wake her up.

John's scroll started to sing _Flight of the Valkyrie_ , bringing the male out of his slumber. He pushed the button on the scroll and it went silent. The steady soft breathing from his left told him Blake was still asleep.

"Blake! Get up. We got to get ready for class." No response. John threw his pillow and missed. "Alright, you leave me no choice." He laughed internally at what he was about to do. One of his clones appeared in the air above the sleeping faunus, casts and all. John fell on top of Blake and pulled her into a hug. "Morning!" He cried gleefully.

Blake sprung out of bed and back handed the clone, who disintegration into shadow. "I thought I told you don't do that!" She hissed.

"Well short of shooting, I don't know any other way of getting you out of bed. Now help me up. I need to use the bathroom." She complied, helping him into his chair. Through much effort, John had learned how to get from his chair to the toilet on his own. He wasn't letting Yang get a picture of that happening.

Blake busied herself with giving Bella her morning feeding. _I know it's hard to wake me up in the morning, but that always feels like he's over stepping his boundaries._ She removed her bow and began to brush her hair. John had begun dropping clones on her after two days of her sleeping in. On both accounts they had been late.

The bathroom door opened an John wheeled himself out. He was sporting a fresh shave and smelled of deodorant. "Bathroom's free." Blake left the room and he rolled over to his draws. He pulled out a new pair of pants. He had struggled his way out of his sweats and was trying to get another pair on when Blake finally came back out.

John turned beet red and spun his chair to obscure her view, desperately attempting to get his pants on his massive legs. "You know." Blake said. "For someone who is so friendly in the way you wake me, you seem to do your best to stop me from doing my job when it comes to you getting undressed."

"Of course I would!" John exclaimed as Blake helped him into the pants. "Only a helpless pervert would want a girl help with those things, not to mention the fact you know I like you far beyond the friend zone."

"Then wouldn't you want me to see?" She tossed him a new shirt and he put it on. It was interesting on how he could change shirts so quickly and always have one on at the same time. Who would have thought the guy who would gladly toss clones on a sleeping girl would be self conscious about his body.

"No. Absolutely not." John was trying to slip on his tennis shoes with the tip of his sword. Blake put a stop to it immediately. As she tied his shoes, John reached under her bow and scratched the base of her ears. "But I will spoil you without regrets, but not in public. Secrets should be kept." She gave a quite purr before she came to her senses and shrugged him off.

"What about that promise you told me? Didn't you say you were not going to make a move?" She reminded him. She had her usual glare on, but John couldn't help but feel like it was just a bit softer.

"It's not making a move if I'm paying you back for your help." Blake just huffed. John sighed. _To cute._ "Come on. The rest of your team should be at breakfast by now." They took an elevator down to the main floor and made their way to the cafeteria, were they joined up with team RWBY and JNPR. Blake seemed to have put the mornings events behind her.

"What do we have today, Weiss?" John asked as Blake handed him his tray.

Weiss checked her schedule. "Today we have Professor Port in the morning and Professor Connor in the evening." She didn't sound to excited. Port was generally boring to begin with, but Professor Connor was usually fun. When the room wasn't exploding, that is.

They finished their food and began to head over to Ports class room.

"Hey John." Yang said as he kept pace with the group.

"What? Got anymore good leg jokes?"

"No." She flashed her smile. "Wan'a race?" She didn't wait for an answer and took off running. John fallowed close behind in hot pursuit, dangerously cutting sharp turns around corners.

"That is so childish." Weiss commented as the two teens burned rubber. "And I had thought he was mature when I first met him."

"Well, he is fifteen." Blake pointed out. "It's like expecting Ruby to act like an adult."

"Wait, he's younger than me!?" Ruby exclaimed loudly. "But he stands at about six feet tall!" Blake snickered.

"It makes it hell to put on his pants." Blake told them about the events of that morning. By the end of the tale the girls no longer felt as if being tall was going to help John. "He was happy to have me take care of him until he found out he needed me to change his underwear."

Weiss and Ruby blushed. "You've done that?" Weiss asked. Blake immediately blushed as well.

"No. When he found out he stole my key and hid in the bathroom. He used his sword to get dressed, but he ended up with a really big scratch on his chest." She remembered how she had scolded him as she tended to his wound. And to believe she had thought he was a good guy, just to find out he was as bad as she was on catnip sometimes.

The trio heard a loud crash, a cry of pain, and hysterical laughter. The rushed to the scene to find John had tried to take the turn in the door to quickly and had lodged the chair snug in the door way. John now lay in pain on the classroom floor in pain and Yang still in the hallway, bellowing with laughter.

"AND JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING? DO YOU WANT ME TO BREAK THE REST OF YOUR LEGS?" Blake yelled. John flinched and stopped moving, staying perfectly still in fear. She was really angry and he was really hurt, so he didn't see how this was going to end well.

Blake and Yang got him off the ground and back into the chair. "Even with your aura focused completely on your legs, it's going to take at least three weeks to heal." John saw that Blake's eyes were dilated.

"I-I'm sorry Blake." He suddenly felt like he was a kid again, being scolded by his mother. "But the injured guy out ran _The Blonde Dragon,_ that got to count for something."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "The blonde dragon?"

"I don't know." Yang said. "I kind of like it." Ruby agreed. She was blonde, and her attacks were fire based. The name fit well. "Is Ruby the cookie blur?"

"Why not?" The five started to think of new nick names until the bell rang and the girls had to go to their seats. John took up position in a corner of the room. The lesson went as usual, meaning Professor Port got sidetracked almost immediately. Somehow class had turned into a really boring story of a fishing trip when he was younger, and John had started to dose off. Port noticed immediately.

"Oh? You think you don't need this class anymore, since you can sleep while I'm talking?!" He spoke with an even voice, but John could tell he was angry.

"Well, the only thing I learned today is that you were spinning the reel the wrong way, and that's why you couldn't catch the fish." He said groggily. Port's eye twitched.

"Ok. If you think your so skilled, get on the field." The professor ordered. John tried to protest but was cut off. "You are allowed one weapon. Get to the field." John sulkily moved onto the field.

"You can't do that! It will kill him!" It was Blake that yelled out. She was standing, team RWBY was with her.

"Just let him. He deserves it after what he did to me on the first day." It was Cardin. He roared his approval at the idea of John getting murdered.

Normally quiet Velvet spoke up. "What are you talking about? I remember you doing that on your own will. I didn't see him do anything to you." John mentally face palmed. They had forgotten to tell Velvet the truth.

"I was possessed!" Cardin protested. "His voice was in my head, I swear!" There was a wave of laughter throughout the crowd. Even the professor chuckled slightly. John didn't like Cardin, but no one deserved to be rejected because people thought he was insane.

"Cardin, stop." John called up the row. "There is some truth to what you said. And if you don't want said experience to happen again, don't make me your enemy." John pulled out his gun and and checked the cartridge. "Red, white-yellow, non modded tip. Could have gone with APR, but this will do."

John rolled onto the stage and had his back to the cage. John already knew it was a boarbatusk. What else would port use? "Are you ready?" Port asked. Cardin yelled that he was a cocky bastard. John nodded. "Then begin."

The cage slammed open. John counted to five as he listened to the grim charged. He turned into a shadow in just in time. The boarbatusk smashed into his chair, speeding past. There was a yell and scuffle from somewhere in the classroom, but John couldn't lose focus. He piggybacked on the grim's shadow as it rolled past. He dropped out after 3 seconds, knowing from his studies that the charge lasted only 10-12 seconds max. He had landed on his back. As quick as he could possibly move, he gripped the pistol with both hands aimed, and fired.

There was a flash and a squeal of pain, fallowed by a small explosion and splattering noises. The combination of white and yellow dust had accelerated the bullet, easily piercing the unprotected hide of the boarbatusk's hind quarters. The red dust kicked in and that is were the explosion came from.

John looked at professor Port blankly. "Can you get me my chair? As you can see, I'm a cripple right now." Silence. The room was utterly silent. John wondered if he had died again.

Suddenly, a loud roar of applause and cheers echoed through the room. Team RWBY and JNPR came down and carried him to his chair like a trophy. Cardin was practically smoking out of the ears in rage. Blake had tears in her eyes.

"Your one crazy bastard, you know that right?" Blake honestly thought he had really been killed.

"I made my first kill in the same manner." John watched with a smile as Port tried to calm the riot that had sprung up. Someone had caught the whole fiasco on camera. "I can see the headlines now. Professor makes severely injured student fight, student wins and starts a riot." Then added hopefully. "Maybe wins a girlfriend?" The group laughed.

Professor Port finally got the class back into order just in time for the bell to ring. The class flooded out of the room, determined to tell everybody what had happened. Team RWBY was heading to the library to study. John tagged along, needing to return some books.

When they walked out and hour later, John's chair was loaded with books and Yang looked like her soul was stolen. John's scroll vibrated. There was email of the video in Port's class.

"Wild fire. That's what this is." He shook his head as he put the scroll away. After lunch, (John hid out in the courtyard, avoiding the chaos) they went to professor Connors class. This time the teacher was the one who congratulated him on his achievement.

"Well done, me boy, well done! I have never seen such advanced usage of dust, especially for someone at such a young age!" Professor Connor taught the art of using dust, combining them to produce different effects. It was John's favorite subjects.

"To be honest, I had to develop that one outside." The two of them laughed. "If you combine pink, white, and yellow you get this little ball of light that sits there for five minutes." The two of them talked about what different mixtures wielded different effects for almost ten minutes before Blake finally dragged John away.

Today's lesson was based off of John's stunt in grimanolagy, giving that everyone in the room had it fresh on their minds. Connor went over in quite detail about how it was done. John noticed throughout the lecture, Weiss was more bored then ever.

John reached out mentally to her. _Don't freak out. I'm using telepathy, so only you can here me._

Weiss flinched. John could sense her confusion. Finally, she talked. _What do you want?_

 _How did you make that ice-shell? I've tried many times and couldn't get it right._ He sent her memories of him freezing everything around him and, occasionally, himself.

 _Try using your aura. It gives you a greater range of manipulation._ He sensed a bit of pride in her words.

 _Ah, so that's how you could bend your shots. Thank you, my lady Schnee._ He made sure she knew he was joking around before he cut the line.

The class ended with Professor Connor having John display some of his special ammunition. John used his his newly famous PER (penetrating explosive round), his non lethal water bullets, his lightbulb shot, and his smokescreen shot. He refused to show any of his bullets he would use during sparing though.

"You know." Yang commented as they left class 20 minutes later. "I got a nickname for you now."

"Oh? What's that?"

"The Unbeatable Cripple."


	12. Chapter 12: the birthday war

Due to the videos release on the internet, John was now officially a part of Remnant. Normally the feat he pulled off was nothing to pay attention to, but because he was injured and completely unfazed by the end, he was now something unusual. The name 'Unbeatable Cripple' was now common place. John was personally not very impressed with what he did. He had much harder fights when he first arrived.

John was sitting alone in his room, disassembling his fire arm and cleaning it. Blake and the rest of her team had went into town and wouldn't be back until later that day. He wondered thoughtfully about what she could be doing as he cleaned discharge residue out of the chamber. He couldn't say he actually missed this.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in, it's open." A very odd pair entered the room, one of them carrying his favorite gaming system. John stared at Cris (They had agreed to call God by a friendly informal name. Made it a bit less of a formal friendship) as he and Lucas entered the room, carrying an Xbox 360. "How did you get _that_ thing here?"

Cris chuckled. "Happy birthday." He placed the gaming system on the bed. "I heard you could have died again. Your getting good at dodging fatal moments, aren't you?" John realized what day is it.

"Is it really November Thirteenth?" Cris nodded. John grinned. "Halo anyone?" They dove right into it. John was absolutely delighted when he learned he had Xbox live that connected to his home world. But above all he loved the modified 4 player campaign, curtesy of his friend being a god.

(Switch perspectives.)

Team RWBY chatted happily as they walked back to the academy. "So, did he win a girlfriend?" Yang asked Blake. Blake went red and shook her head furiously, causing the group to giggle uncontrollably. "Geez, you don't have to try to deny you like him."

"Oh course I do!" Blake said. "He acts like he's a big kitten around me. It cute, yes, it's funny, yes, but I thought that about Sun too, remember?" The group went quite. Blake's relationship with Sun had taken a turn for the worst when he came on to strong. "Be stole all my bows to try to get me to come out in public with my ears showing. Then he has the nerve to sneak into my bed, half naked at that?!"

The group had went silent. They had forgotten about what had happened between the faunus couple.

"Well anyway, let's hurry back. We will miss dinner if we doddle for too much longer." Ruby pointed out, breaking the tension. They hurried back, Blake carrying a paper bag of cat food. The group split up in the main hall, Weiss, Yang, and Ruby to dinner and Blake to John's room. She mused on if she would have enough time to play with Bella before she had to go join the others at dinner. She could almost here the cats mews as she reached for the doorknob.

"Weapons free, shoot anything that isn't me. Lucas, we have contacts from the rear. I'll take the ones at one o'clock." That was John shouting, accompanied by gunfire and small explosions. "Targets neutralized. How's it going on your end, Alex?" An unknown voice responded, requesting assistance and apparently pinned down.

"What's going on? Who are you shooting?" Blake opened the door cautiously, not entirely sure if she was stepping into a war zone. What she expected least was a completely clean room and John and Lucas starring at a TV, a strange white box hooked up to it.

"Oh, hi Blake." John paused the game so he could talk freely. "We were just playing a game from my old world. Want to play? There still a spot open."

Blake set down the bag of food next to the cat dish, noticing that it had already been filled. Lucas must have done that, seeing as John couldn't leave his chair. "I'll find out more about this later. You guys know it's dinner time right?"

"Oh shit!" Lucas exclaimed, checking his watch. "Come on, we got to go eat." He rushed out of the room, not bothering to look back. John, however, picked up his head set.

"Hey Alex, I got to go eat. Il be back on in about forty five, sixty minutes ok?" He asked into the mike.

"Yeah, see you soon." This time a video popped up on the upper corner of the screen, a mousy haired boy grinned in the picture. "Let's play PVP next."

"Sure." He turned off the screen and accompanied Blake out of the room. On the way he had to fend off the many questions on how his game worked. If he could walk on his own he would turn invisible until they got their food. But alas, he couldn't.

"How was your day?" Ruby asked as the pair sat down, Blake now showing no visual sign of knowing about his game.

"It was alright. Cris and Lucas came over today. Other than that, not much." He said lazily. "Unless you count me getting my Xbox."

"What an Xbox?" Ruby asked. She was eating a hotdog, a bit of ketchup was on her uniform.

"Just my favorite gaming system from my home world. I also got my favorite shooter game; Halo." He started talking excitedly about his game, going over the enemies stats, the weapons and their uses, strategies and he was about to start explaining the controls when there was a loud pop and a wrapped up box appeared out of thin air, falling with a thud on the table.

The girls jumped. John ignored their surprise and pulled the box to him, untying the letter that had come with. "It's from cris!" He showed them the signature. "He says this is a new adapter to the Xbox. Hold onto and turn the game on, you are transferred _into_ the game. Any one want to try it out?"

Yang volunteered almost immediately. Ruby said she'd join too, but Weiss refused to play due to the fact that she wanted to study. The three of the players turned to Blake.

"Fine. But isn't Lucas playing also? You only have four controllers." She gestured with her hand to the side, as if she was holding the problem.

"Not anymore." John waved the disk shaped devise in the air. "I call dibs on the dive experience!" John spent the rest of dinner explaining the game in better detail. They met up with Lucas after dinner and hurried back to the game.

"Ok Alex. We're going to have some new targets on the field." John told Alex what was going on. "Is this alright with you?"

"Yeah fine with me. Best out of three?" There was 3 soda cans, 2 chip bags, and a water bottle. He was ready for a long fight.

"Deal. I'll take Blake. You can have the sisters and Lucas." John started to distribute the controllers.

Yang spoke up. "Wait, why do we outnumber John's team Two to one? Isn't that unfair?" Yang was all for a good fight, but the numbers favored a complete slaughter. She was completely caught off guard when both John and Alex busted out laughing.

"Girl, we are the ones going to get slaughtered. I've played this guy for three years, and I have rarely won." The game started. They all looked over to John, who sat like a statue. He had pushed the button and was now in the game.

Blake put on John's head phones like he had ordered. "About time you put them on. I'm behind your character, so when you get in follow me."

(Change perspectives.)

John loaded in with his standard issue weapon set. DMR and a magnum. Motion trackers set to 25 yards. But the greatest part of the gear, _he was in the armor._ He barely felt it. It was like wearing his tee shirt and sweatpants.

There was a series of beeps, and John readied his rifle. Game start!

Blake was in black armor, the name tag on her head indicated her as an ally. He kept watch as she tested out the buttons. The pair was in one of the bases on the map Valhalla on halo 4. John could hear the water of the ocean near by.

"Come on. I'll do this so its easy since its your first time. There's a warthog out back. Get in the turret." John kept a careful eye on the canyon as he escorted his teammate to the vehicle. Once he made sure she was in the turret he hopped into the driver seat. "Hold on, and shoot anything that moves!"

John floored the gas, driving through the canyon, paying close attention to the radar. He was about to go over the hill in the middle when Blake's voice came over his com.

"Hard left! Turn now!" He listened. Blake had a view of 3 of their targets, so whatever she said he had to do it. There was a loud click and a sniper round soared over his head. He barreled down the hill and slid back onto flat land, still making steady ground towards enemy territory. The machine gun fire told him that Blake was engaging someone behind them. A moment later they gained the lead.

"We in the clear?" He yelled back, forgetting that he was talking through a com.

"No! Yang at one o'clock, rocket launcher!" John did evasive maneuvers, narrowly missing being hit by a rocket. He re-angled the car and raced towards were the shot came from. Bullets sized over the car as his gunner let it rip.

The battle raged on, John's adrenaline on high. They had racked up 25 kills before the jeep was destroyed. They took cover in one of the caves, running low on ammo. "How much do you have left?" Blake shouted, changing clips. Lucas's body at her feet.

John checked his ammo indicator. "Five shots. You?" He scanned the battlefield, it becoming awfully quit all of a sudden. He peeked his head out. No sign of movement. _Were are they?_

"Counting the ammo I just got? One and a half clips." John tried to think of a plan. No matter how many he killed, they always came back. He had been fighting like his life depended on it and he was running on fumes.

An idea struck him. "Hey Blake?"

"What?" Her avatar was still watching her side of the cave.

"I need you to draw their fire. There should be a mantis over at their base. I need you to go grab it. They should target you as you get close. If you succeed, take them out. I'll go grab the banshee at ours."

"But didn't you say those were rather weak?" She asked. She had taken off as John ordered, but she still was curious about his plan.

"To this day, I've never been shot down." He had took off as he heard gun shots and explosions. Less than 12 seconds later, the red team gained there first point. Blake had her first death. He ran full force towards were he knew the banshee.

"John, they have the Mantis! Pull back, pull back!" Blake's voice came over the radio. _Well, that explains why she died so fast._

48 yards to go. "Is it Yang?" He asked.

"Dodge now!" John tossed himself to the side. Two sniper shots blasted the dirt. If he wasn't warned, on of those would have got him in the head. He had no time for thanking his partner though. 2 Spartans rounded the corner of the base. One had a SAW, and the other a charged plasma pistol. _Sniper behind, certain death from the front so... LEFT NOW!_ He jumped to the right, plasma burning were we kneeled just seconds before. The high powered machine gun opened fire, some of the bullets hit him, but most of them fallowed the plasma. John threw his last grenade, the glowing blue ball sticking to the male's leg. The second Spartan tried to run, but could not escape the blast.

DOUBLE KILL. John was never so satisfied by that voice until now. "Blake, how is it on your end?"

"Hang on a second." A moment later the announcement voice claimed victory. "Stabbed Ruby in the back."

"I didn't know you were their!" Ruby wined. The chat was now opened channel.

"I expected no less." Alex said over the game. "Happy birthday man. You deserve that win."

Four voices sounded out over the radio at the exact same time, making John regret that he was returning to his body at that very moment. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"


	13. Chapter 13: a nightmare to remember

John groggily returned to the world of Remnant. When he regained all of his senses, he was surrounded by 3 girls, each one had their arms crossed. Lucas on the other hand was holding onto the TV, gawking at John's perfect kill death ratio. He had scored little compared to Blake, who was manning the gun, but his team had only taken one death.

"Do you wish to explain what he meant by 'birthday'?" Blake said darkly, looking pretty ticked off. John raised his hands, dearly wishing he could move. But unfortunately, he was stuck in his chair with no shadows to escape.

"You should have told us." Ruby said, sounding kind of hurt. "We would have spent the day with you instead of abandoning you to be alone." She was pouting. Her puppy dog eyes really felt as if she was pushing the blame on him.

"I didn't know myself until earlier today. Besides, didn't we just have fun together right now?" John put up his argument as honestly as he could. "Cris told me when he gave me the game."

"Still doesn't mater." Yang replied. "A birthday is a _day_ of celebrating ones birth. Not twenty minutes. And you are satisfied with this?"

"Twenty minutes? Is that all its been?" John asked in shock. "I could have sworn I was in there for almost an hour." That small battle he had taken part in felt like a war campaign.

"Yeah look at the clock." Lucas pointed at the screen. Indeed, the battle lasted exactly 20:15.

John should have felt afraid. He should have felt horrified. But he was elated. He even had an idea. "If you guys really want to make my day special, take me on. 5:1."

Alex accepted immediately. Yang fallowed suit. John started messing with the game setting, not bothering to check if the last three were going to join. "Ok, I have made it so that you spawn with your weapons of choice. Ruby gets sniper and assault rifle, Blake gets duel SMG's and pistol, Yang gets rocket launcher and plasma rifle, Lucas has a grav hammer and sticky detonator, and Alex has a SAW and an incineration cannon."

"Great, my teams all set." Alex sounded satisfied with the arrangement. "What's your set?"

"DMR and assault rifle." John said. Just standard equipment. "Infinite ammo and ability usage is on. Your ability is promethian shield. Oh, and it's on hit kill. First to a hundred wins." John conveniently forgot to tell them his armor ability. He picked up his controller and prepared for battle. "Game start!"

John's body went limp, eyes closed as if he were asleep. "Ok, so what's the plan?" Blake asked, making sure the game had started before discussing any form of plan.

"What do you mean plan? That's not how we did it last time." Blake sweat dropped at tangs response. "Just find and murder your boyfriend." They turned their attention to the screen. Ruby and yang were moving in a pair, everyone else was on their own.

"He's not my boyfriend." Blake mumbled. John had chosen the map complex. There was a series of what appeared to be labs and caves in the map.

"Bet I'll get first kill." Yang said, firing a rocket into a random doorway. There was an explosion, but no kill.

"I'll take that action!" John's voice came from the TV. Less than a second later Ruby and Yang dropped dead. Both of them had taken a bullet to the head. "So Yang, what do I win?" Needless to say, Yang was furious that he had one upped her so badly.

"You have won an all expense paid trip to hell! Show yourself!" There was no response, just Lucas getting blasted in the back with a grenade. The hunt went on, team RWBY and co. Not getting any closer to winning or finding John.

On the other hand, John was having the time of his life. 6 kills, 10 kills, 28 kills. No one could catch him. "Want a hint?" Blake fell, getting mowed down by his assault rifle. He was at 52 kills to 0, the opposing team was getting frustrated.

"Yes! Why haven't we even seen who's killing us?" Bang. Alex went down. Ruby, who was near by, sprayed the area of the body with her rifle. There was the sound of shields falling and John materialized. The hidden menace had finally been killed. "He is invisible! How do we kill what we can't detect?"

Alex was one step ahead. "Invisibility is known as active camouflage. It's not perfect. The ability forces the player to move slowly or risk becoming visible. It is heavily reliant on how slow the player go's. The slower the better the invisibility."

"Ok, so how do we beat it?" Yang asked. She was in the middle of the map, paying attention to everyone's screens, looking for a clue.

"Look for a shimmer, a distortion in the air. Or as soon as someone dies, everyone rush the spot and light the place up." Then he added, "and don't travel together. He won't miss."

Unbeknown to them, John already had a strategy to counter this. He had switched his assault rifle with a looted sniper and now sat in a dark corner of the map, in the shadow of a building. He steadied his aim, taking his time for his shot. Alex was in the lower part of the map, out in the open.

He took the shot. Alex's body toppled forward, setting the trap. The radio chatter went up, red Spartans gathering in an area around his body. Sniper fire out of the doorway, rocket fire from the roof. Even plasma fire from Lucas. But were was Blake?

"I got him!" There was the sound of automatic weapons fire and John went down. The score was now 54:2. John tried again, this time taking out Yang. This time a sniper shot hit him in the head.

"Interesting." He tried the process a few more times, noticing that the same event kept happening. Only Alex didn't get a kill. _Meaning the girls mike is off._ Time for a new strategy. The girls (and Lucas) were moving in such a way that on can always see another.

John moved to the middle of the map. Ruby was on the roof, Yang in the court yard. Lucas was on a lower roof about 70 yards away. John snuck up on Ruby, being careful not to be detected. Normally, he wouldn't pull this off. But being in the game had its advantages. He slowly, carefully pulled off her extra ammo. She continued to scan the courtyard, unaware of what was going on. John carefully pushed the release button and removed the active cartridge, leaving the gun empty.

He hit Lucas next. He had stashed their ammo and side arms in a corner of the map for later. He wasn't able to locate Blake, but he had a feeling he would find her as soon as he put his plan in action. Once he disarmed Alex, he moved back to the center. Because of his inactivity, the girls were edgy. He was almost caught as he snuck up on Yang.

Finally Lucas got bored and decided to make conversation, seeing as they couldn't win until he showed himself. "Hey John." He turned the mike on. "I'm going to make a bet on we're you are."

"Watch'a wagering?" He asked, slowly raising his rifle for a headshot. He hoped infinite ammo wouldn't work with no ammo to begin with.

"If I win, you have to forfeit the game. If you win, you can have a date with Blake." There was a pause and the sound of a hand on flesh. "The bet stands!" There was a bit of pain in his voice.

"Fine. I'll give you some hints." He stood behind Yang. The only other person in sight was Ruby. He shot The sniper carrying Spartan in the head, fallowed quickly by stabbing yang in the back. He turned off invisibility and ran. He rushed around the corner and went into a slide. He had spotted a flash from the side, duel SMGs firing. He dropped a frag and continued running. A ghost came screaming from behind, aiming to run him over. "Alex, the first thing you ever did to me in this game was run me over. Try something new." He jumped and threw a plasma grenade under his feet, sticking the driver as they passed. He ran for the extra ammo. Lucas appeared in a door way. He must have tried to shoot because he heard him swear loudly. John shot him and continued.

He reached the ammo and went invisible. There were 3 Spartans running towards the destroyed ghost, the other two towards Lucas's body. He switched to a DMR and quickly killed the group at the body, then eliminated the ones at the ghost. He checked the clock at the lower half of his helmet. 45 seconds, 10 kills.

He switched to a SAW, determined to hold the point. Using the DMR for long ranged combat and the high powered machine gun for mid range, the red team didn't stand a chance. With all his senses on high, he was unstoppable.

"The unbeatable cripple strikes again!" He celebrated as he came back to reality. The final score was a crushing 100:15.

"You won every game AND every bet. Congratulations man. You get a date with Blake." John stared at Lucas, not quite comprehending what he said. "My guess was you would be behind Alex." Lucas had a big smile on his face. "Besides, it's better this way. I owe you big time. Without you, I wouldn't be going out with Velvet."

John looked around the room. Only Blake was not amused. Neither was he. Alex wasn't on screen for he had rage quit. "Ok guys, you can't do this." John complained. "I am not going on a date with Blake. We both have our own free will, and neither of us want to date."

"Oh really?" Yang said putting her hands on her waist. "You both have an affinity towards each other. Just get together already."

"No. Anything other than a date. It's way to early." Yang shook her head. _Why don't they see what the other wants?_

"You agree to anything?" She asked in a tired tone.

John nodded. "Anything." He suddenly felt like he had screwed himself over.

"Then tonight your going to sleep together." Yep, he definitely saw that on coming. Ruby and Lucas nodded, both of them on Yang's side. John was about to argue when Blake kicked him in the leg, causing him to yell in pain.

"You should have just accepted the date." Blake mumbled, not meeting his eye. Even through his pain John was drowning in the feeling of guilt. It was _his_ fault for not seeing that Yang wouldn't make sure something would happen.

"fine, I'll bite." John said. He was secretly plotting a way out of the hairy situation.

"Good! I expected more resistance though." Yang clapped her hands. She began to usher everyone out of the room, claiming it to be past Ruby's bedtime. "I'll be checking in on you two later." She said with a smile, then closed the door.

"Do you have your key?" John asked Blake. She shook her head. "Then there goes that idea." He closed his eyes, trying to figure out a plan. He was tempted to creat copies of them, but he could only copy himself.

"Are you coming or what?" He turned around to find that Blake had changed into her sleeping garbs and was sitting on his bed. There was a deep blush on her face, even thought she was glaring.

"No Blake." John said, shaking his head. "I can't put you through something like that. I learned from Sun's mistake. No matter how much I want it, I will never sleep in the same bed as you until you're ready. I'd rather die again than make you uncomfortable."

Blake diverted her gaze and went quite. John let out a sigh and went back to trying to think of a way to fool Yang. No matter how hard tried, he couldn't find a way to pull it off.

"I guess I could just sleep in my chair, and..." A pair of arms appeared around him, cutting him off. In one of Blake's hands was a ribbon. _Her bow._

"Come on." She said quietly. "The faster we go to sleep the faster we can get up and separate. It not like we have to do this again ever again." She had a very gentle, quite tone of voice. She had such a tender hold John really wanted to embrace he with the same kindness.

"Help me up." John let out a sigh. "I guess you're right. We can pretend this never happened tomorrow." Blake helped him into bed, him laying against the wall. Blake laid down on the edge. Even though he was mentally drained, he still worried what his body would do in his sleep.

"Goodnight." John pulled the covers over them.

"Happy birthday." Blake whispered. John had a slight grin when he heard that. He wondered what she was dreaming about that night.

 _Blake ran through the woods, towards the glowing light source. She was panicking. Something terrible had happened. She had to get home. She had to get to her parents. The little faunus stumbled into the clearing, fear and shock in her eyes. That was her house. And it was on fire._

 _There was men in masks all over the place. There was screams coming from the flames. "Mama! Papa! Mama!" Tears were streaming down the little girls face as she fell to the ground. The men in masks ignored her._

 _"That's their daughter, isn't it?" One of then muttered._

 _"I don't care." A burly man said. "Traitors, all of them. They were friendly with humans, can you believe that?"_

 _"Break it up. We need to move before the cops show up." A man in a hawk mask and black coat broke up the pair. The men were running to a set of trucks parked away from the burning building. The man in the hawk mask walked up to Blake, staring down at the girl on the ground._

 _"Why?" Blake sobbed. "Why did you do this?"_

 _"Because they were traitors." The man said. "Humans and faunus can never get along. But you didn't know better. Join us. We will teach you the rules of the world. You will never be unhappy again." He reached out with his hand, and Blake took it._

 _"So this is how you started." Blake spun around. John was standing in the clearing, watching the scene. "This is why you joined the white fang. It wasn't just the protests. It was because of this."_

 _Blake was no longer a little girl. She had turned back into a teenager, confusing dominating her eyes. "What are you doing here?" She asked. This dream was common, but this was the first time the boy showed up._

 _"You were shaking and sweating profusely, so I came to check on you." He walked over and helped her up. "Come. I'll show you something." The scene changed. They were now standing outside of a one story house. The lawn needed to be mowed, the driveway had cracks all over the place. A great big tree sat at the end of the driveway, giving shade to a mailbox._

 _"This is were I used to live." He told her. The place was worn, the color faded. John opened the door, leading her in. It was a mess. The bathroom was down the hall, and it was absolutely tiny. "The room at the back of the hall I shared with my brother. I stopped playing completely to avoid cleaning." He chuckled. "Still had to. Lazy bastard."_

 _"Why are you showing me this?" Blake asked. She pushed some of the keys on a piano, making a few uncoordinated notes._

 _"To calm you down." He replied simply. "I can tell that memory tormented you. So I brought you somewhere normal." John pulled a wooden chair out of the kitchen and took a seat. Blake sat on the couch. John looked at her with a worried face. "Are you alright?"_

 _"Yes, I'm alright." She looked away. "Thank you."_

 _"I love you Blake. If you ever need my help, just ask for it. I'll be here to do what I can." He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder._

 _"Your a good guy John. I hope you can keep that promise." She looked him in the eye, understand and gratitude apparent._

 _"My power is at a limit." John was flickering, like a broken TV image. "I am going to have to sleep in tomorrow. Think of good things. You should dream of something more pleasant."_

 _Blake laughed. "Don't sleep to late. We have some were to go tomorrow." The flickering got worse. John would have to leave soon. "Sweat dreams."_

 _"Goodnight." He glitches out and the world turned into a blur._

John faded back into the real world. He had stayed in a suspended state of sleep while his body and mind rested. He had held onto Blake's dream for almost an hour, far longer than he should have.

The first thing he felt when he woke up was a weight on his legs. He looked down to find Blake, his Blake, on his chest. She was cuddled up on top of him, a peaceful look on her face. "I guess you had a good dream after all." He began to pet her back, content to bear with the pain of her on his legs until she woke up.

The faunus shifted slightly, but didn't wake up. Instead she let out a purr of happiness. John gave a hum, vibrating his chest. He wrapped his arm around her waist, content to fall asleep in this position. But alas, the world had other plans.

There was a flash of light and he looked over to find the rest of team RWBY sitting on various beds, a scroll in Yang's hand.

"Morning." Weiss whispered. "She woke up earlier in the morning, but went back to sleep." A soft smile occupied her face as she looked at the scene.

"Were you seen?" He asked. The girl shook her head. "Then you were never here." He kept petting the cat faunus on his chest. "How did you get in here?"

"The window was unlocked." Ruby said in an accomplished tone. John sweat dropped. They hadn't bothered to find the key.

"Ah. My key is over in my bag. Escape quietly before my princess awakes." He nodded his head to the base of the bed. For once, the girls didn't argue. They left quietly, locking the door behind them. John continued to pet Blake, being the happiest he had ever been.

Eventually the purring stopped. Blake shifted, but stayed on her warm, bony bed. John stopped petting her, instead hugged her and hummed. She finally rolled and faced him.

"It wasn't a dream, was it?" She asked cautiously. She shifted slightly in his arms, suddenly unsure if she should be there.

"It was indeed a dream." John said. "But what you saw was real. It took a lot out of me to free you from the nightmare, you know? I hope you're not expecting me to release you anytime soon." He pulled her up, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other across her shoulders. Blake rested her head on John's shoulder.

"I have no objections." She said as she returned the hug. "Just don't rest to long. We _will_ make up for missing your birthday." She nuzzled him as she finished.

"You have no idea, Blake." He said quietly. "You already have."


	14. Chapter 14: The Black Claw

John was sitting in the infirmary, trying not to scratch his leg as the nurse slowly cut off his casts. "Tell me if I accidentally cut you." She said, focusing on the cut. John had no idea that cutting the hardened cloth would itch.

"You'll know something's gone wrong when blood comes out." He said sarcastically. "I just can't wait to be able to walk on my own again." He and the girls had plans to go out to celebrate his recovery later.

"Are you sure you don't want to use crutches? Just because you can walk without support doesn't mean you should." John shook his head. Blake would tell him off later, but he was pretty sure he could handle it.

There was a call on the phone and the nurse had to stop opening the casts to pick it up. "Hello? Yes. Oh dear. I'll have a stretcher ready. Have you Ozpin yet? Ok, I'll inform him on mr. Cain's condition." She hung up the phone and turned to John, a grim look on her face. "Can you wait here for a bit? There is something I need to do."

She had turned to leave when John stopped her. "Hey, you said 'Cain', as in Lucas Cain?" The nurse nodded. John grabbed the scalpel she had been cutting his cast with and aggressively finished the job, leaving a shallow cut on his leg. "Then I'm coming." John strode over to the nurse. His legs were wobbly, but he refused to let it show. "Fill me in." He ordered.

The nurse had to struggle to keep up. She was pushing the stretcher that they had brought with. Every now and again she stumbled slightly. "Team COAL had sent out an SOS signal about an hour ago from a mountain region to the far west. They were on a mission collecting crag flowers. When the airship arrived, they found mr. Cain greatly injured."

"And the rest of the team?" He asked. He had seized the stretcher and the nurse was jogging next to him.

"I don't know. I just know Mr. Cain needs immediate medical attention." That was all John needed to hear. He charged out the doors, speeding towards the landing area. There was only one air ship currently parked there, it's bay door open. They hurried over inside was a group of people surrounding a body on the ground. The boy on the deck took loud, ragged breaths, covering up an obviously bleeding wound.

Lucas was badly injured. His jacket was in taters, his handsome face heavily bruised. There was various cuts and what apeared to be burn marks all over his body. Most disturbing of which was a deep stab wound in his stomach. It had been poorly wrapped up, blood soaked through the cloth.

"Are those bullet wounds!?" The nurse had set to work on the stab wound, removing Lucas's shirt. There was two clean holes in the teens shoulder. John inspected the wounds determining that the bullet wasn't in them. He pulled the sewing kit out of the med kit, along with the rubbing alcohol. The nurse nodded.

"Lucas, this is going to hurt my friend." He cleaned out the wound as best as he could, then began to stitch him up. Lucas screamed in pain. "Think of Velvet, man. If we don't do this, you will never see her again. Just bite the bullet. Tuff it out. Come on, almost there." John finished his makeshift stitches, stopping the bleeding. He looked to see the nurse's hands glowing, her semblance repairing most of the wound. She looked weak, sweat rolling down her neck and her body shaking. She was about to hit her limit.

Lucas had calmed down, but not by much. He constantly groaned in pain, but the treatment had made sure he would have a chance of survival. "John." He groaned, putting a lot of effort to push the words through his teeth.

"What?" He was talking. That was a good sign, right?

"Your an asshole." John breathed a sigh of relief. He was definitely going to be alright. The nurse had finished with the stab wound and was now leaning against the wall of the ship. The stretcher sat forgotten, Immediate danger had passed.

John fetched the stretcher and moved Lucas onto it. Lucas grunted in pain as John dragged his butt onto the cot on wheels. "Hey mam, we should probably get him to the infirmary now and inform Ozpin." The nurse took a moment to get to her feet.

"No running this time." She said. John nodded and started to move at a more reasonable pace. Once he had made sure that Lucas had made it to a bed, John stepped outside to make a call.

"Hello? Velvet? This is Lucas's friend John. You should probably head down to the infirmary." There was a barrage of questions from across the line, but John silenced her. "He will live. But I want you to come and give your support. This is your place, not mine." He hung up. He tried the rest of team COLE's numbers, but none picked up.

 _Team COLE, Charles Gwen, Olympia Pendal, Lucas Cain, and Eric Smalls. Only Lucas was human, so I doubt the White Fang would have attacked them. As far as I know, they didn't make many enemies here, so I doubt someone at the school did this. I can roll out a grim attack. They don't use guns. So who or what did this?_

John's scroll vibrated, breaking him out of thought. "Hello?"

"Were are you? You were supposed to meat us almost fifteen minutes ago!" Blake said over the phone. She had a worried look on her face. "Is that blood?"

John looked at his shirt. Indeed, his white shirt was peppered with crimson dots. "Yes, but it's not mine. It's Lucas's." He said grimly. "I don't think I'm going out tonight."

"Ok. I'll tell the others. We will be waiting in our room." The call ended. No sooner had she hung up the nurse called him back in.

Ozpin had joined them. "Good. Lucas said you should here this." Velvet sat next to the teen, holding his hand. It was obvious he was still in pain, but John was glad he was able to bear it now.

"I'll start by stating the obvious." Lucas said, winching at words. "It wasn't grim that did this to us. It was humans." Velvet stiffened, rage in her eyes. Lucas rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. "We were half done collecting the herbs when they struck. They wore masks, and had unusual green armor. They weren't hunters, that's for sure. They didn't have any active aura. But there was a lot of them. We fought hard, but were severally outnumbered. They killed them. They stabbed me and forced me to watch as they killed my teammates." There was anger, grief, and bitterness in his voice.

"Did they tell you who the were?" Ozpin asked. John's jaw dropped. _How could he act so normal after hearing this?_

"Yes, they did. It was, uh, it was..." He paused to think, suppressing his emotions. "They called themselves the Black claw. They wore an insignia on their shoulders. It looked like the opposite of the white fang."

John was appalled by the nerve these people had. It was down right retaliation genocide. He did not look forward to telling Blake.

"There was one last thing I learned. When they thought I had bled to death they let the name of their leader slip." He looked at John, a fire in his eyes. "The name they gave was Carmon Straiter."


	15. Chapter 15: the approaching conflict

John was hiding in the library again, and Blake was getting worried. It had been about two weeks since the incident had happened, and John had spent a lot of time alone.

"Just leave him alone, Blake." Weiss told her when she had asked for advice. "He has something that will take time to understand." Blake nodded, but refused to take the advice. Whenever she could, Blake would try to talk with the brooding teen, but every time the name Carmon came up he would turn mute.

The unbeatable cripple was history. John never fought in combat practice anymore, and when he did all he would do was dodge until his opponent was exhausted.

"This has to stop." Blake said. She grabbed her keys and took off, Weiss shaking her head in disapproval. Even thought John had avoided contact with anyone, he had never repossessed his key. She unlocked his door and went inside.

John's room had deteriorated since she had returned to her team. The bed had not been made in awhile, the cat food bag lay out in the open, a pile of clothes sat at the foot of his bed. Stacks of paper littered his desk. Only a few of them were actually homework. Blake picked up one of the papers.

 _Report on new threat; a little close to home._

 _Carmon Straiter; age 18. Hight: 5'4._

 _Carmon Straiter is my sister. Despite being a blood relative, never accepted me or my brother as family. She had an extensive history of street fights and criminal activity. Generally kind to her allies, she formed a gang of sorts and moved on to organize attacks on government officials. An anarchist, she hated our country and their appearance of order. But I personally agreed with her on one thing. America was not a country of perfect order. It was a country of money. If you didn't have it, you were nothing._

 _Carmon was very charismatic with her words. She would often cause riots in the streets. My parents disowned her at the age of sixteen._

The report was signed by John and addressed to Ozpin. It always amazed her at how connected John was. Blake put the paper down and began to shuffle through the others. A lot of them were on Carmon. Her eating habits, her sleeping routines. He even managed to get his hands on a picture of her. She was reorganizing the papers when she noticed that there was one sheet sticking out of his drawer. She picked it up and read it.

 _This my fault. I had a talk with Cris last night. The universe is a balance. Everything is proportional. The good is always balanced with misfortune. Karma will always hit when you least need it. Luck is irrelevant. By God sending me here and giving me tools and gifts, his counterpart also was given a chance to intervene. I see now that I was not sent here as a second chance. Carmon arrived before me. Because my arrival, she found something to destroy. The devil told her about Blake. She is now on the opposite quest as I have. If mine is to make life better for faunus, then she is to destroy them. I am leaving this message in case I should fail to stop her. At least someone will know how this started. I have been doing extensive research on the surrounding area of were the attack took place, and have located a few possible locations were they could be. I am going to need a team._

"I hope you're not enjoying yourself while reading that." Blake spun around. John was sitting on the windowsill, his sword on his waist and his gun in his belt. He had an impressive array of ammunition strapped to his belt.

"No, I was not." Blake checked the door. She did not hear him enter the room, and that was something since she was part cat.

John sighed. "At least someone else knows. I'm going to need your team when the time comes." John walked over and put a fresh paper on top of the stack. "Come to me in the library if you want to talk." The clone dissolved. Blake took one look at the new paper and took off.

Blake found John in his favorite back corner, multiple books open on the table. John himself had dark bags under his eyes and was reading two books at once. He glanced in her direction, acknowledging her, and went back to reading.

"Hey." Blake put a hand on his shoulder. "Need any help?" She asked. He reminded her of the time she was obsessed with catching Torchwick.

"Yes please. Can you look through that book there for any mention of a green, light weight metal alloy." He pointed at a thick volume of _Unique And Unusual Metals._ There were a few notes in the pages. Blake sat down and got to work. Hours passed by. They took a break for lunch, something that Blake had not done when she was in his position, and went back to work. Weiss came and joined them a while later.

It was late at night when John finally closed his last book. Weiss had gone to bed a while ago. "I'm done for tonight." He said, stretching his back. Blake yawned and joined him on his way out. "Want to sleep in my room tonight?" He asked casually.

"It's been forever since we last did that." Blake complained, leaning against John's shoulder. "We should go out and do something tomorrow." She said. John could tell it wasn't a suggestion.

"I guess." He said, wrapping his arm around Blake. "I could use a break anyway." They entered the room, both of them mentally exhausted. John fed Bella while Blake changed in the bathroom. John took off his shirt and crawled into bed, Blake joined him shortly. Once he threw th cover over the two of them his limbs felt like led.

"You know," Blake said with a smile as she cuddled up to his skinny frame. "If I wasn't so tired right now I would be disappointed with your body type." She poked him in the side. John was pretty much skin and bones. She could feel muscles, but they weren't much to brag about.

"If I chose between powerful and dumb or fast and smart, I would choose the later." He gave a kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight, my kitten."

"Goodnight, my human stick."

John woke up the next morning feeling better than he had all week. Blake was already awake, pressed up against his chest for warmth. He crushed her with a bear hug to tell her he was awake. They separated and got dressed for class, exchanging a few loving words.

They had started dating after John had pulled her out of her nightmare. True to his word, whenever Blake had a nightmare John would pull her out. When she had asked him what he wanted in return, He had said the most cheesy romantic quote she had ever heard.

"As long as the first thing I see every morning is you, I will gladly protect your dreams." Even after Blake had moved back into team RWBY's room he watched over her dreams. She returned the favor by walking to class with him. He even got her presents whenever he found something interesting.

It wasn't the most romantic of relationships, but both of them were content with the arrangement. They joined the rest of the group at breakfast, still holding hands.

"You two have an active night?" Yang asked as they sat down. John ignored the comment, used to Yangs teasings.

"We were up late, but we were being productive." Blake said. She was eating sausage and eggs. "There is something my boyfriend needs to do, and I'm not going to stand in the way."

"I got a report to Ozpin tomorrow. I would appreciate it if you guys came with me." John stated, taking a bite of bacon.

"What's the report about?" Ruby asked.

"Everything I can give on the Black Claw." John said blandly. The group gasped.

"You mean the criminal anti faunus group?" Pyrrha asked. "Aren't they like the polar opposite of the White fang?"

"Not quite." John pulled out some papers from his bag and payed them on the table. "You'll find out more tomorrow, but I'll give a quick glance over." He pointed at a page covered in research notes. "They are a group that sprung up just recently. Their goal was not known till recently. They aim to destroy all faunus, not just the White Fang. They are located in a mountain region known as the gray moon range. Their leader is one hell of a bitch."

The group looked through the notes. Nora didn't join in, honestly not caring for the details. "Just tell me who to smash." She said with her usual smile.

"Yup, not the face of mercy." John commented. The others laughed. John gathered up the papers and they walked to class. First up, Dr. Oobleck. John decided to change his usual pattern and sat with team RWBY. Blake gave him a small smile of approval.

An hour of caffeinated lectures later, the couple walked out of class hand in hand, the rest of the team fallowing shortly. They hit the library for some extra studying (John disappeared to his table) before they had to go to combat practice.

"We're having a surprise exam today students." Goodwitch announced at the beginning of class. "Each team will battle another team. You will be graded by how well you fight, not if you win." She emphasized, looking sternly at Cardin. John raised his hand. "Yes, mr. Straiter?"

"What about me? I don't have a team." There was a murmur through the crowd.

"You can skip the exam and be graded next sparring class." She replied. Then added, "Or we could hit the randomizer and you fight who ever comes up."

Blake elbowed him. "Go and fight. You can use the release."

"But if I fight, I pretty much sabotage another team." He told her. "I'll take the first option. It's more fair that way." He called down.

"Ok then. Team CRDL, team KAIN, come down." John spent the next hour and and a half studying the moves of the combatants.

 _Just because I can't fight doesn't mean I can't learn something._ He thought. The fights were entertaining, but John grew bored after awhile. He was glad to leave the hall at the end of class.

"Will you excuse us. Me and Blake have somewhere to go and were dearly late." He joked as they dropped their stuff off in their rooms.

"Any idea of were to go?" Blake asked as they walked into town. He made a mental note to kick Ozpin's ass for not mentioning there was a path back to town from Beacon.

"Not really." He said. "My pocket book is empty. I was planning on hanging around the park, maybe make flying grass ships."

Blake laughed. "Typical you, never having a plan when it comes to romance. How about we go get lunch?" John didn't turn down the offer. He was absolutely famished. Blake took him to her favorite restaurant (ironically it was a noodle shop that sold a fish bowl). They made small talk, debated whether it would be a better idea to sleep in their respective rooms or together, and generally enjoyed each other's company.

Blake paid for the food and they went for a walk in the park. It was sunny outside and had a slight breeze. They sat next to a pond and watched a mother duck teach her babies to swim. "How do you feel about children?" Blake asked suddenly. She had her arms wrapped around her legs, eyes locked on the ducklings.

"To be honest," John said reluctantly "I always wanted a daughter. Funny, isn't it? The only other girl in my life has turned into my mortal enemy, and I want a daughter." John laid down on the grass, watching the sun filter through the leaves above him.

Blake giggled slightly and joined him. "I never pegged you as the fatherly type, but I guess it makes sense."

John raised an eyebrow. "What did you peg me as then?"

"As the kind who would defend his friends fiercely. You don't back down from a challenge either. If someone you cared about needed help, you would be the first to volunteer. I should have figured that extended to family." She laid down on one of his arms. They stayed in that position for a while.

"I value you above my own life, Blake. I would love nothing more than to live peacefully together for as long as I live. But my family has other plans." Blake rolled to face him, he chin resting in her hand. "I have no doubt Carmon doesn't know were I am. If she comes after the school, I am pretty sure she will have no problem causing a lot of damage."

"You shouldn't worry to much." Blake told him. "We have the finest hunters and huntresses on our side."

"I hope your right Blake. I hope your right."

I am sorry if this has seemed mostly filler, but the story starts now. This is were the real action starts to happen. With the apearence of Carmon Straiter, John's new world is now threatened. Be advised that Carmon used to beat up John for fun, so expect a big fight when they meet. If anyone has a suggestion on how to give Straiter some income (other than a job, he's in school) I am open for suggestions.


	16. Chapter 16: the last day to deployment

John, Team RWBY, team JNPR, and Lucas stood in Ozpin's office. Ozpin reviewed John's report along with Goodwitch and General Ironwood. The room was really crowded. _Why did he have to get them involved?_ John wondered, looking over at team JNPR and Lucas. He had requested team RWBY, but had not expected all of his friends to come.

The adults had been holding a whispered conversation. They broke apart and faced the students, faces grim. "John, are you sure on your theories?" Ozpin asked.

"I am sure, sir. It makes sense to me." He said standing strait. Even at his impressive size for his age, Ozpin still towered over him by about 4 inches. "It has been evident throughout my world's history and events. And I am pretty sure sis won't be to happy to find out I am here."

"How can you be so sure that they know you're here?" Goodwitch said. "Even if they were to attack, we have an army of hunters and huntresses here. Why do you think it is necessary for this mission of yours."

"The same as I have my assets, so does she. She probably knew from the start." John stated. "We both know that team COLE was a very capable unit, and they were slaughtered." They couldn't possibly argue with that.

"So what do you propose we do?" Ironwood leaned on the table. "According to eyewitness reports,their armor deflected a majority of attacks without a scratch, but then they would become unusually soft."

"I don't have to many clues on the problem, but I guess that they have energy shield that deflect attacks. This works much like your aura, except if you stop causing damage it will recharge very quickly."

"Sounds kind of like your game." Blake commented.

"I believe that's were she got the idea from. I learned to play the game from her." John flipped through the papers on the desk, pulling out what he believed to be the enemies equipment and possibly extra gear that had not been learned. "I wish to request permission to lead a small three man unite for this job."

"You should have four." Ozpin said. "I have read the report. You team is up to your choosing, but I would recommend you take only one from each team."

"Then I'm coming." Blake stated confidently. "There's no question about that."

"No you're staying." John shot her down mercilessly. "I'm not taking you into a hotspot of anti faunus killers." She tried to complain, but John cut her off with a look. "It's not happening." He said firmly.

"If you can't trust your girlfriend in the field, who can you trust?" She huffed, turning her back to him. John was honestly surprised that the teachers weren't trying to reel this in.

"It's that exact point that your not coming." John stated loudly. An uncomfortable silence fell between the two. John wanted to apologize right away, but his gut told him it was better this way.

"First fight?" Weiss asked. John just nodded bleakly and turned back to the pressing mater.

"I'll go by your suggestion." He looked over his shoulder. "Lucas, I'm counting on your vision to watch the squads back. Will you come with me, my friend?"

Lucas straitened up. "I will follow you on this mission. I trust you to have my back as I watch yours."

John turned to Weiss. "Weiss, other than the adults here you have the most extensive knowledge of Remanent. Would you be willing to take part in this?"

"Wouldn't Blake be better for your combat style?" Weiss asked. "You always preferred to strike fast and hard, plus my info doesn't cover this situation."

"She's got a point you know." Ruby told John. "Are you sure your not being over protective?" That stung. Even Ruby, who tended to understand how others felt above all, insisted on putting Blake in danger.

"John, Blake can fend for herself you know." Yang said. "Your acting like a dad trying to stop his daughter from going outside." That hurt even more. They did have a point. _Am I really that protective?_ He wondered to himself.

"I can feel were your coming from, man." Jaune said. "I have plenty of sisters to vouch for me. But sometimes you got to, what was it? Roll with the punches."

"No wonder I wanted you on the team." John said, giving in. "Blake, looks like your coming with."

"Wait, why do you want me to come?" Jaune asked. He didn't exactly stand out against the rest of his team.

"Because your a natural born leader." John said mater a factly. "If I make a bad decision, you'd be there to second guess me. You know just as well as I do that I make mistakes." He looked lonelily at Blake. "Especially when those I care about are in question."

Blake's expression softened. "No hard feelings then, ok?" John nodded.

Ozpin broke the mood. "Ok, now that that's settled, give us the rest of your plan."

John pulled out a map of the surrounding area and went through his combat strategy. They would be landing about a mile away from the combat zone. They would then run recon, setting up exit routs and a few nasty surprises for their opponents. John made it very clear that he didn't care if his enemies died. They would then proceed with investigating the prime areas for a base. If they found opposition, they would destroy or disabled it before moving on.

Out of his bag John produced a proximity mine. "I have spent the last few days preparing these. Place them at the entrances and important areas of the bases. If you find supplies, grab what you can and destroy the rest."

"What is in those?" Pyrrha pointed at the mine.

"A very colorful arrangement of dust and wires. You set the timer, put it down, and leave. You can set it to explode from movement at a range of a yard." He put his explosive back into his bag. "Only turn it on when you are leaving." The meeting went on for another half hour, the others of the team adding in their opinion.

"You know." Luca said as they left the room, heading for Lunch before their afternoon classes. "I've been trying to make one of those cool names for the team, but I just can't arrange the letters right. Since your the leader, do you have any ideas?"

"I already tried. That method is not going to work." John crossed his arms as they walked. "I was actually thinking of going with this Halo theme. Does fire team Osiris sound good to you? The enemy is wearing armor that looks like chief's in three, so we could use his opponents name."

"Wasn't that the covenant?" Yang asked. "I didn't think you would play the bad guy."

"I meant Osiris. In Halo five, there another Spartan team in charge of catching the master chief. Their unit was under the command of John Locke. (Wink wink to any reader who has heard of the game and know the author.) it's a fitting coincidence, don't you think?"

"Fancy yourself a spartan, John?" Blake said with a grin. "And here I thought you were taking this seriously." John wrapped his arm around her, glad that she didn't hold anything against him. _Yet._ Women had a nasty habit of remembering later. (Leave a comment bellow if you've been there, my male companions!)

"Who do you plan on fighting?" Ruby asked. John remembered that he had to test in combat practice today.

John gave a wicked grin. "I've been waiting for this. I'm going against Nora!" Nora immediately gave him a high five and the rest of the group silently prayed that his legs wouldn't be broken again.

They spent their lunch trying to talk John out of his fight, but he wouldn't have it. "I'm not going to lose this time."

"In your dreams, solo." Nora gave her traditional trash talk.

"That won't work anymore, zaps. I always was a solo player, but I got a team now. Even if it's only temporary." Blake and Lucas sat next to him and nodded.

"Don't break his legs again." Blake said. "But so far it was one of my favorite period of this relationship by far." She leaned against John's shoulder, letting him know she was joking around.

"I won't break his legs." Nora promised. "But I can't say he won't be injured." Blake glared at the joke. And they thought John was overprotective. John pat her head, his form of half chastising her, half petting her ears. She shrugged him off, stifling a purr.

They finished their meal and raced to class, John loosing spectacularly to Ruby. The others took their place in the risers and John took to the field. To Goodwitch's displeasure, Nora joined shortly later. "Ready?" She got ready to start the match, having the infirmary on speed dial.

"I've been ready since I lost." John pulled his sword and spun it in circles. He had been practicing the motion so he could use the centrifugal force to parry her hammer blows. He had gotten good enough to creat a fast pace dome around his body.

"Ooh, fancy." Nora said. She readied her hammer. "But this is just going to be a replay of last time."

Goodwitch raised her arm. "I pity you, mr. Straiter." She said. John flashed his cheshire grin. "Begin!" John charged forward, becoming weightless so he could move faster. Nora reacted just as fast, swinging her hammer so that it would catch him in his unguarded side and end the match in one hit.

But John had learned a few tricks. He slid on the ground and spun his blade above his head. The hammer was nocked away. While this took place, John's other hand worked just as effectively, drawing his gun at record speed. Nora jumped and avoided his sword, landing as if she could do this in her sleep. John stuck his sword it the ground to slow his slide, closed his eyes, and shot into the air.

A blinding flash exploded in the air, forcing everyone to look away. Anyone who didn't would only be able to see white for about 20 seconds. John used that time to the fullest. By the time Nora could see again, there were seven John's at various distances surrounding her. Each one had their gun drawn.

"Which will you choose?" John's clones said in unison. "By the time you strike one the real one will have fired." Each one of the Teens gave a Cheshire grin and steadied their aim.

"I choose... ALL OF YOU!" A nova of electricity shot out from her body, zapping each one of her opponents. They all fell, then disappeared into shadows. Nora slammed her hammer into the ground, causing a shock wave to reverberate through the room. "Your in my shadow again, aren't you!" She jumped and blasted the shadow with rockets. Nothing. Didn't even scratch his aura.

A figure fell out of the air. John slammed his sword into Nora as he landed, putting all his momentum and strength behind the attack. Nora's aura on the chart dwindled faster than John had ever seen it go. Not getting distracted, John launched his assault. His sword was a blur, his body resembled an atom model. Nora tried to defend against his constant blows, but that only encouraged him to move faster. She attempted to retreat and John hit her in the abdomen.

"Match over! Match over!" Goodwitch yelled, but John had already stopped. His blows had been light to ensure that he wouldn't hurt her to bad if he failed to notice her aura failing.

"You ok?" He asked, sheathing his blade. " _Midnight_ didn't cut you, did she?"

"No, I'm ok." Nora blinked. "When did you learn to fight like that?" He definitely wasn't that skilled last time they fought. They took their seats with the rest of their teams.

"Your strength is your biggest weapon. Your speed and dexterity is lower than the others." John summarized, then added, "so I got faster." He began to twirl his pencil in blinding speed. "It's all in the wrist."

The rest of the class flew by fast. The group walked out of class discussing their latest fights. They were in the middle of discussing Ruby's recent victory when John's scroll rang. He hung back to take it.

"It was Ozpin." John said grimly as he caught up to the group. "We deploy tomorrow. Juane, be ready to go by ten." The group split up as they reached their rooms. Team RWBY went to their room to work on homework. Lucas was probably still in afternoon lesson. John would inform him later.

John opened his door to be greeted by a playful little cat climbing up his leg. "I'm back." He picked Bella up and scratched her head. She gave him a playful nip on the hand and he put her down, grabbing her toy mouse and tossed it across the room, Bella in hot pursuit.

The mouse landed in the shadow of a bed. Bella pounced on it and rolled, ending up under the bed. John ran his fingers along the frame and little paws shot out and batted at him. They played like this for a time, John's mind finally being taken off the looming encounter with enemy forces.

John stuck his hand a little to far under the bed and Bella latched on. There was sharp pain and John pulled his arm out. Dangling upside down on his arm, Bella stared at him innocently. Droplets of blood dripped out of a small puncture wound. John pulled her off by the scruff of her neck and placed her on her bed (she had claimed the one closest to the window) and went to clean and bandage the wound.

When he came back, Bella was laid down on her side. Her eyes were wide, obviously trying to bribe her way out of trouble. "Leave the puppy dog eyes for the puppies." He said fondly, petting her belly.

John filled Bella's bowl with food and proceeded with weapons maintenance for the next day. He got lost in the job and it wasn't until Blake came to check on him did he notice he missed dinner.

"I thought I would find you mopping around, but instead I find you sewing?" She asked when she found him repairing a small rip in his belt. "Dinner was done almost a half hour ago. You should eat something."

John looked at the clock and shrugged. "I guess I was to focused on my work to notice." He got down on the floor and started to dig around. He produced a water bottle and crackers from his hidden stash, along with a chocolate bar.

"Do you always store food under there?" She asked. Blake had heard boys stored a lot of things under their bed, but this was a new one.

"What did you expect me to have?" He asked. "I store my dust, extra ammo, food, and text books under here." He lifted the sheets that hung over so that she could see.

"I don't know. I was expecting you to have porn mags or something." Sure enough, no porn was to be found under the bed.

John laughed as if he got that a lot."Naw. If I am barely moved by Yang, do you really think I would be into photoshopped pictures of girls?"

Blake laughed at the snappy comeback. "What is your fetish than?" She asked. If they were going down that road, might as well have fun with it.

"I'll tell you if you tell me yours." John teased.

 _Damb, that was my line_! Blake thought for a moment. "I guess I never really thought too hard about that before. I would say tail but your not a faunus, so..."

"A fetish doesn't change depending on who you go out with, Blake." John said. "I'm kind of into the same thing, but I just like odd cute things in general." Blake blushed. She decided that was a complement on her ears. They started to joke around about each other's habits and likes, the time flying fast. At one point they locked the door and Blake took off her bow, John immediately spring forward and pet his girlfriend.

"I should probably go back to my room now." Blake said suddenly, causing John to pause mid scratch.

"Do you have to?" He asked. Blake sat up and started to put on her bow.

"Yes. I'm going to sleep with my teammates one last time before we have to go." She sighed. The thought of a mission against her boyfriend's family worried her. _Will he be able to kill her when the time comes?_ She wondered.

John noticed that Blake felt a little down and decided to stop it there. "If you know what I mean." He said, trying to imitate her voice. Blake slapped him in the back of the head, suppressing a smile at his attempt to lighten her mood.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She said as she closed the door.

"Sleep well." John replied.

The door shut and he was alone with his cat.


	17. Chapter 17: 2 nightmares, 4 bullets

_The pair was walking through unknown woodland, the moonlight filtered through the scraggly canopy of oak leaves above their heads. Multicolored leaves cluttered the ground. A purple outline of small mountains loomed in the distance._

 _Blake held John's hand as they walked. John walked with a purpose, and Blake followed. As they walked, the trees changed to boulders, the grass faded into stone and dirt. The couple started to walk along the road that led up the mountain, the ground well worn from an indefinite amount of feet._

 _Sprouting out of the crags were small, spiky plants with red flowers. Blake recognized them. They were the plants team COLE was sent to retrieve. That means..._

 _"I think we should go back." Blake said, feeling a sense of foreboding. She stopped walking and tried to turn back, but John kept going. She chased after him, trying to make him see this was not a good place to be but he ignored her fears._

 _"It's just a little farther." He said, giving her his gentle smile. It didn't help ease her fear and only proved to increased her anxiety._

 _"A little farther until what?" They were approaching level ground. "Were are you going?" John said nothing and led her around a corner, the path widening. They came across a clearing surrounded by tall stone cliffs. In the center was a long crack, black smoke rose out continuously. In the middle was a black rose._

 _"That's were it happened." John said, starring at the flower. "This is were sis arrived in Remnant." There was something wistful in his voice. Blake got bad vibes from the flower. Very bad vibes._

 _"John, let's go." She phrased it as an order. This time John followed. That was when it started to fall apart._

 _There was a loud crack and blood splattered the ground in front of them. Blake turned to find John kneeling, a hole in the side of his chest. A look of shock covered his face as he looked at the blood streaming from the hole._

 _Two more shots rang out and John collapsed. Blake retreated away from the body as a pool of blood crept towards her feet. A loud, feminine laugh sounded from the middle of the clearing. A black fire engulfed the flower and a figure stepped out of the flames._

 _"This is too easy." Carmon cackled as she stalked towards her dead brother. Blake was frozen in palace with fear and grief. "To think I would win the game so early in." There was a tingle in the back of her neck when Blake heard these words._

 _Carmon stood a bit taller than Blake, Her green eyes burning into the faunus. All her other features were obscured in black flames. As she walked figures in armor began to pop into existence behind her. They did NOT look like Spartans. They were covered head to toe in overlapping green plates that reminded her of fish scales. Over their face were drapes of chain mail made of the same material._

 _"..."_

 _Blake regained her senses and tried to run, knowing that she didn't stand a chance against such a force. What she was greeted with as she turned to flee was a stone wall in the path were they had come in._

 _"Blake!"_

 _Blake was cornered. A halberd appeared in Carmon's hands and she charged, laughing gleefully as she closed in on her prey._

 _"Blake!"_

 _Blake tried to run past the mob, dodging weapons and bullets as she went. But no matter how much she ran, dodged, and struggled her way past the sea of enemies there was no end. It only proved to get her surrounded._

 _"BLAKE!"_ John's voice roared through her dream, shaking the ground. The soldiers collapsed and Carmon screamed in rage as Blake was launched back into reality.

Blake laid panting on her bed, sweat poring down her forehead. She was shaken up badly from the dream, tears dripping down her face. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Blake searched her thoughts for John, seeing as he normally stuck around to make sure she was ok whenever he pulled her out. Sure enough, he was there.

"You ok?" He asked In his normal worried voice.

"I'm fine." She smiled. For the guy who laughed as he was losing a fight, he could be tender something's. "You can go back now, I'll be fine."

"Yeah, about that." He said sheepishly. She could see him rub the back of his head like had made a dumb mistake. He didn't normally do that, or to be more precise, he couldn't. "I'm stuck."

"What do you mean by stuck?!" She jumped out of bed and started to get dressed.

"Calm down, seriously! As long as you fall asleep in under half an hour, I'll live through it." John realized it was a bad move to say this because she started to panic even more. "I am in your head. You have to calm down. Just get Yang to punch your lights out, or I'm going to have to take control of you the hard way."

"Good idea." Blake said. That was the quickest way to solve the problem. "Yang! I need your..." Both John and Blake let out a groan as they found the blonde's bed vacant. On the bed was a note that said she had gone out to party and wouldn't be back until later.

Now John was starting to panic. "We just have to think. You could always try to go back to sleep the normal way, but your adrenaline is pumping to much so, hey wait were are you going?"

"We don't have time." Blake stated as she ran down the hall and a flight of stairs. It wasn't entirely true, but 22 minutes was not nearly enough time for Blake. She was going to somewhere questions would not be asked and action would take place immediately.

"Bad idea, bad idea!" John shouted in her head, letting his impulse to turn and go back flood her mind, but she ignored him and continued to run. "Who is going to save you when this is done? I don't know if I will wake up in time to stop anything!"

"Let us agree to do our best, ok?" She stopped and punched the shit out of a wooden door. John tried to take control and get her to leave, but Blake mentally blocked him. The door opened and the last person John wanted help from answered the door.

"What do you want?" Cardin asked grumpily. John watched in horror as Blake told him blankly to nock her lights out. Cardin shrugged. "You asked for it, so don't blame me." Just before Cardin's fist collided with her face, Blake gave John one last order.

"John, I need you." And her lights went out.

John struggled back to the waking world. It was a painstakingly long process to have his mind return to his body and regain full mobility. It only took a few seconds, but to John's racing mind it was an eternity. And to top it all off, he was famished.

Not waiting for his legs to respond, John rolled off the bed and grabbed his gun from underneath. He ran out the door, not bothering to put a shirt on. He activated his semblance and dropped through the floor.

"Blake!" John shouted as he rushed down the hall. He didn't trust Cardin one bit, and since her didn't see a body on the ground, he feared the worst.

"Hands in the air!" John shouted, kicking down the door. What he saw made his blood boil.

Blake laid on the ground in her underwear, sporting a few bruises. Her bow laid on the ground at the door, abandoned and forgotten. Team CRDL surrounded the unconscious faunus, their dicks hanging out of their pants.

Shots rang out. 4 agonizing screams echoed through the building. When the teachers arrived less than 3 minutes later, they found team CRDL on the ground slightly singed and paralyzed. Darts stuck out of their balls, electrical currents being sent out at regular intervals. The big, powerful teens were reduced to smoldering babies, tears of pain covered their faces. They had been so traumatized by the pain that when they were questioned, they only answered bleakly: "We messed with someone we shouldn't have."

John had recorded video evidence before he had shot the bastards. He had taken Blake back to his room and now sat facing the door, his gun in hand. When Blake woke up he would calm down, but until then, if he saw Cardin's face again, it was shoot first then shoot later.

 _And if he lives, shoot shoot again._

 _hey guys, it's the author. I have edited the previous chapters and they should make a little more sense now._


	18. Chapter 18:first encounter, last wish

"Why is he asleep?" Lucas poked John's unconscious body, which occasionally bounced when the airship hit turbulence. The teen had fallen asleep as soon as the bay doors had closed, snoring softly. Also on the strange side, Blake had a large welt on her cheek.

"Nothing you need to know." Blake said, not quite meeting his eye. Team CRDL would live through the attack, but they would never have children. "He did a great thing last night." They waited in silence a good deal of the trip, not wanting to disturb the sleeping teen.

"We will be there in another ten minutes." Juane said as he emerged from the cockpit. "Best we wake him up." Blake gently shook the teens shoulder as Juane took a seat.

"What?" John said groggily. "Are we there yet?" He looked around the bay, taking note that all his teammates were up and present.

"We will arrive in a few minutes. You should get ready to deploy." John checked his gear. He had his sword strapped to his waist, his gun was in his holster, and his bag of tricks was slung over his back. He had equipped each one of his team members with a lethal arrangement of traps, grenades, and other useful devises. Each member had a small radio and a few tracking beacons.

There was a series of muffled thumps from the outer hull and the ship lurched to the side. Alarms wailed inside of the ship. John unstrapped and tried to make his way to the cockpit. Another explosion forced the ship to lurch the other way.

"Looks like this a hot drop, people!" A voice shouted over the intercom. The bay door dropped open and wind whipped the inside fiercely.

"This is our stop. Same as the entrance exam. Let's go!" John far up to the door and checked that his squad was following.

"But I was pinned to a tree during that time!" Juane interjected. John yanked him by the arm and jumped, closely followed by the rest of the team. With Juane screaming beside him, John activated his semblance and safely landed via shadow. They emerged under a bush, the blonde still screaming.

"You can stop screaming now!" Lucas called from his perch in a tree. Blake dropped down, using her ribbon and _Gambol Shroud_ to slow her descent.

"Movement?" John called up. Lucas checked through his sniper _Tiger's Eye_ scope, scanning the area.

"We're clear." He pointed to the north. "The shots came from that way. Think it's a good idea to strike there first?"

John nodded. Lucas climbed down the tree and joined the group. They set off at a jog towards were the missiles had originated. They paused frequently so that Lucas could scope out the area with his semblance. They met no opposition for the longest time, putting John on edge. Then Lucas signaled a sudden stop, his eyes red and had three circles.

"Heat signatures, four hundred meters." He whispered pointing to 2 o'clock. "Shall we engage?"

"How many?" John said quietly. Blake and Juane readied their weapons.

"It appears to be a patrol. Three of them." John nodded. This would be a good test to see their weapons and abilities. Lucas's eyes turned dark gray, checking for metallic components on the enemy. "On has some kind of rifle, the other two have axes."

"Osiris, fall in. Lucas, watch around us so we don't get ambushed." The team moved on an intercept course. John had the group take cover in what appeared to be the targets set route. Lucas hung back and climbed a tree, getting a clear view of were the ambush would take place. Then they waited.

John squat in the foliage, Blake and Juane hid behind trees. They could hear the sound of footsteps approaching. _As soon as they are surrounded._ John told himself. _We will see very soon what we're up against._ Three green figures passed his position, taking no notice of the teen. They were about to pass the spot were Blake and Juane hid when a bullet deflected off of the lead soldier's helmet.

John jumped out of the dirt and launched three quick cuts at the closest soldier. The first one bounced off of his targets shield, but the next two easily cut into his target. The others weren't having as much luck as he did.

They had nocked down the man with the gun and Juane was engaging the axe wielding soldier. He was obviously stronger than he was last time John had watched the show, easily holding his own with his opponent. Blake on the other hand was focused on keeping the gunner from firing a shot off on Juane's back. John swung at the rifle carrying soldiers head, his sword breaking through the shield. The soldier was nocked away, lucky to have his head. Blake finished him off with a bullet through the chai mail over his face. The turned to watch Juane dispatch his opponent by stabbing him in the gut.

Lucas joined them and picked the gun off the corpse. "I don't know this model." He said as he inspected the old rifle.

"That's an m1 carbine. It was used during World War Two." John said as he striped the body of ammo. "It was a decent gun at the time." He took the gun from Lucas and dissolved it into a shadow. In reality he just stored it in his shadow, but it still looked awesome. They continued on towards their objective.

"Hold up." They had arrived at the targeted location. "Lucas, circle around to that point on the rocks over there. Radio in once you're in position." Lucas took off. The rest of the team crept up an incline and lay flat on the ground, peering down on the rocket pods. The weapons were on a small plateau over looking the woods, an alcove that appeared to have a camp of some sorts was situated behind it.

For 3 long minutes Lucas was silent. John was worried he had been caught and loaded his gun with a flare round. The other two prepared to charge in, fearing the worst.

"I'm in." The radio cackled. John let out a sigh of relief and laid flat on the ground.

"What do you see?" Blake and Juane came close to hear the radio.

"There are three pods. They have a command outpost in the alcove, for I see tents and supplies. There are a good twenty contacts milling around, maybe more in the tents. I count at least seven with guns." Lucas's summary made John swear quietly.

"We can't fight that many." Juane said. John couldn't help but be inclined to agree.

"We have to." John whispered. "There might be maps and documents in there that we need. Just give me a minute to think." John pondered the problem. How could 4 take out 20 without any casualties? John looked down at his gun, wishing he could do more...

 _Wait a minute._ An idea occurred to John. "I need to sleep." His teammates looked at him like he was crazy. _And maybe I am._ "Trust me. I just need to be protected for five minutes. I need to talk with Cris."

"You have truly lost it." Blake said. John didn't hear her, for he was fast asleep. She sighed, resigning to trusting him. "Just don't sleep through the fight."

The room was blank as usual. Cris sat in his bland chair, a look of disappointment on his face. "Didn't I say we would see each other only once more after you achieved your goal?" He said bitterly.

"I know." John said calmly. "But my team need this. If I have to give up our friendship for their safety, you know which one I will chose." He sat down on the ground in front of his friend, already missing him.

"After this meeting, you will never again touch this realm again. I can see you have already accepted this, so I ask for the last time. What is your wish?"

John put his hand on his heart, asking from the deepest part of his soul. "Give my team the ability to fight. Give us a chance to win. Give me the strength to protect her."

God stood and smiled sadly down on his friend. "Stick to your roots, my boy. This battle will decide the outcome for both of us. My life is in your hands." The floor disappeared from underneath John and he fell. His voice caught in his voice as he rushed towards the ground. He could see his friends. He could see the camp. And he could see how to win.

John came back to consciousness rather quickly. "I know how to win." He grunted, making his teammates flinch. "Lucas, you listen too. Now here's the plan."

ten minutes later everything was in place. The members of the black claw never saw what hit them. A small sun appeared in the middle of the camp, blinding everyone. A barrage of bullets came from one end of camp, breaking strait through their energy shields and shredding them. By the time they reorganized themselves and attacked, sniper rounds cut them down from behind. The remaining survivors took cover, only to be quickly cut to pieces by a skinny teen with a sword and a girl in a black bow flinging him about with a ribbon, shooting those he left behind. The chaos had lasted less than 2 minutes, and 20 bodies littered the ground.

"Blake, Juane, clearing procedure." They laid flat on the ground with guns trained on the tents. John stood to the side and ripped open the tents. If there was someone inside, they were immediately shot. When all was said and done, 24 bodies were piled up at the bottom of the plateau, striped of ammo and weapons. Juane was now the proud owner of the carbine, proving to be a crack shot with the rifle.

"We got maps!" Juane called out gleefully, emerging from a tent. John had set him and Blake to search the camp for anything useful and had set to shadow storing their spoils of war. Lucas kept watch in case any patrols or reinforcements came along.

"I got more ammo for you." John tossed Juane a few more cartridges. "Let's see what you got." Blake came and joined them.

Juane laid the map down on the stone ground. "It's like you expected. They have a number of sites throughout this area." He laid another map down on top of the first. "But what you didn't expect is for them to have these." The map showed a series of tunnels throughout the mountain. "Good news is, it just this one mountain."

John examined the map closely. "If this is correct, than that means..."

"Yup." Juane had a boyish grin on his face. "We know were your sis is hiding."


	19. Chapter 19: escalation

John paced the outer border of the camp, glaring into the darkness. He was on night watch, having volunteered to let Lucas get sleep. They had scrounged up some sleeping bags and were currently resting in the alcove, safe under John's watch.

Blake shifted in her sleep. In her dream she was sitting at the playground she used to play at when she was a kid. "Watch'a dreaming?" John appeared over her shoulder making her jump, his childish grin was on full display.

"Aren't you supposed to be on watch." Blake scolded the teen. "You could be putting us in danger!"

"I don't know what your talking about." John sat down on the bench next to her. "I came to check up on Max." There was a sound of laughter and small feet shifting little stones as they ran. Blake looked back at the playground, now full of children. A small, black haired boy ran up to them, his grin very much like the one that John would often give when he was playing around. Small cat ears poked through his messy hair.

"Dad! When did you get here?" The little boy jumped and John caught him.

"I am everywhere, remember." John exclaimed loudly as he ruffled up the little boys hair. Max pushed his hand off and puffed out his cheeks. "Hey, enough of that. Your a cat, not a chipmunk."

Blake stared. The little cat faunus had called John dad. Did that mean...

"Are you ok, mom?" The little boy looked at Blake and her heart missed a beat. "Your eyes are all wide. Did something happen?"

A single tear streaked down her face. This was her son. She tried to convince herself that this was not real, that it was a dream, but every time she looked in the little boy's eyes, she could only see her own. "Nothing's wrong, my kitten. Not here." She pulled the little faunus in for a hug.

"Mom!" Max struggled out of her arms, his face embarrassed . "My friends are here." Blake looked over at the other children. They had stopped playing and were watching the small family on the bench. Max ran back to the kids, Blake watching with a content gaze.

"It's been ten years." Blake looked over at John. He was starring at his feet, a frown on his face. "Ten years since Carmon was defeated. Do you think Cris would have liked Max?" Blake put a reassuring hand on his back.

"Even if it's been ten years, your friendship will last long after, won't it?" Blake pulled him into a hug. John returned the hug and they watched the kids play keep away with a ball they had found. "Besides, you have a family here now."

Blake watched her son swipe the ball away from another kid and run off. The other kids in hot pursuit. He kept alternating the ball between hands as the others tried to take it. At one point he dropped the ball and a blonde girl got it. On closer inspection, the little girl was actually Yang. Blake looked at the other kids. There was Lucas. Sun was on the swings with Ruby. Pyrrha an Juane were playing in the sand box. She wasn't even surprised to find that Adam was playing with Max, Nora, and Ren. She laughed at the sight of all her friends as children on the playground.

"To think you would have a mother dream, Blake." A second John appeared. He watched as the children squabbled over the ball. A slight grin tugged at at the corner of his mouth. "Maybe when this all over and we graduate. I wouldn't mind having a miniature version of our friends."

"I would prefer our own kid." Blake stood up and stretched.

"Come on. Wouldn't it be fun to have all the destruction of Yang in a tiny package?" He joked. Blake shook her head, trying not to imagine the cost of repairing the holes in the wall. John scratched her ears, his face starting to go serious despite the act. "It's time for your watch."

Blake grabbed on to his hand. "Sleep well then." John picked her up and tossed her into the air.

Blake sat up. John was asleep next to her, clutching her hand loosely. She pulled her hand out of his grasp and got out of her bag, wrapping up her boyfriend afterwards. She grabbed some candy out of John's bag and settled in for a long night.

The group rose shortly after sun up. Blake had caught some squirrels at some point of the night and they had woke up to the smell of roasting meat.

"Is that meat!?" Lucas shot out of bed and sat in front of the fire, staring at the squirrels feverishly.

"Says the person who forgot to bring the food." Blake pointed out. John and Jaune crawled out of bed a reasonable pace slower than Lucas. Blake passed out the food as soon as they joined them at the fire.

"So." Juane said as he finished his food. "What's the plan?"

John tossed his spit into the fire, the grease popping and hissing angrily. "According to the maps we obtained last night, there is an armory and barracks a bit east of here, in a cleverly hidden nook in the wall." He pulled out the map of the location. "It is in a basin that is only accessible by finding a tunnel behind this water fall. We get in, plant the mines, and we blow the place before they go off. I'll do this part."

"Then where do we come in?"

"I will become visible and draw their attention. Blake, I will need you to infiltrate with me. The mines will be placed in the barracks and in the armory. I can say it's safe to asume that they will have explosives. When the chaos starts, a good deal of them will chase me down the tunnel. Lucas, Juane, you will be waiting on the other side with your guns. I will split off a clone as I become invisible and jump, getting behind them. As you mow them down from the front, I'll hit the unprotected rear."

"And why do I have to come with if your going to slaughter them in the tunnel?" Blake asked. "Wouldn't I just be extra?"

"You can't expect them all to attack one guy!" Juane pointed out. "That just doesn't happen."

"Exactly." John was proud. They knew were this was going. "Blake, because your the fastest one here, I trust you can cause plenty of Chaos. I expect only a small few will chase after me. After they here the gun shots more will come. After a good deal of them are in the open, cut them down. We will come and help clean up the rest." John reached out a hand and a large shadow congregated in his palm. A Thompson machine gun appeared and he handed it to Blake. "This should make the job a bit easier."

Blake looked at the gun and nodded. "Shall we get going?" Team Osiris set off on their new target. It was a good hour walk to the designated target.

"I am willing to bet your going to sell a lot of these guns, aren't you?" Lucas asked as they walked. "You can't possibly use all of these weapons."

"Yeah, I plan on selling a few." John responded absentmindedly. "But if we come across any that I like particularly like I'll keep them. You can have some too."

The 2 friends started discussing market profits and business deals. John was starting to think of opening his own weapons industry with the fire arms they would produce after they broke apart the ones the had when Blake held he hand up. The pair grew quite and came to a halt.

"Waterfall." Blake whispered. Her faunus ears were sharper than theirs, meaning she could hear things before they could. With Blake taking point, they slowly snuck the last hundred feet or so. The others could now hear the rushing water as they squat at the base of a large stone wall.

"Heat sigs." Lucas said. "Two guards at the entrance and a patrol of three leaving." He was silent for a few moments as he tracked the patrol. "Ok, the patrols gone."

"Take out the guards. Quietly." Lucas complied. Two bullets whizzed out of the gun and John could almost imagine the two guards hitting the ground. "The light is green. Let's go, let's go!" Blake and John ran faster than the second half of the squad, easily making it to the entrance first. John grabbed Blake's hand and activated his semblance. Together they ran down the tunnel and into the enemy camp.

Inside the basin was a series of supply houses to the left and large housing tents to the right. John and Blake quickly ran and hid behind one of the store houses, just barely making it before John had to drop the camouflage. It took a lot more energy to cover someone else instead of just him.

"We're in." John panted into the radio. "Fireworks in ten." He clicked the radio off and pulled a pair of ear pieces and tossed one to Blake. "Let's set up the show."

(Change perspectives)

Lucas and Juane clutched their rifles and guarded the entrance, eyes like Hawks. Especially in Lucas's case. His eyes had changed to 3 sets of black and white rings, keeping an eye out for movement. Juane constantly checked down the tunnel. The explosions should be going off any minute now...

A muffled boom echoed through the mountain, shaking the ground beneath their feet. A massive cloud of dirt shot into the air. "Oh, God I hope they didn't get caught in that." Juane said as they dropped into position. His prayers were answered with the sound of running feet and gun fire. They opened fire as soon as they saw movement. They easily cut down the hand full of men that had fallen for the trap. Another set of soldiers came rushing in and the pair had to dodge out of the way to avoid the bullets. Yells echoed through the tunnel as John launched his sneak attack, catching them from behind.

Lucas and Juane entered the tunnel after reloading and took out any that still stood. Together the 3 boys ran back into the basin to help with the cleanup. Blake was surrounded by about 10 enemies and holding her own. The guys opened fire upon their unprotected backs. The remaining enemies fell by either bullet or blade.

"Check the remains of the buildings. Juane, guard the exit. If you find any communication equipment, destroy it." The teens spread out to their respective points and searched for survivors. John was finishing his sweep of one of the store houses when he heard Lucas cry out. He rushed out to find them fighting against a rather fast soldier that duel wielded scimitars. The soldier easily deflected incoming bullets and attacks, landing a lot of hits in return.

"Lucas, fall back." John yelled as he rushed in. "Blake get behind him! I want him alive!" Lucas ran to a distance and started shooting at the enemy's joints as John jumped in and started exchanging blows with the speed fighter. Guard, stab, duck, counter, cut, switch places with Blake. The fight was an elegant and dangerous dance, especially since Osiris was pulling their punches. They subdued the soldiers after John cut through the sword into pieces.

"How come you didn't do that in the first place?" Juane asked as he tightened the rope around the soldier.

"Because if I miss and hit you guys it will cut straight through your aura. I would rather have a hard fight than team kill." John knelt down and looked through the soldiers mail that obscured his face. "Let's see what you look like under that mask." He ripped of the helmet.

A horrible, rotting stench escaped the armor. Inside of of the armor sat a corpse. And not just any corpse, _it was a talking corpse_. "I'll tell you nothing! You will get nothing out of me!" John didn't think it was possible, but the corpse reared up and spat at his feet.

John put all his effort into keeping a straight face. He could hear Juane throw up behind him. "We already have all we need. We have maps. We have supplies. We even have weapons that can counter you perfectly."

"Then why keep me alive?"

"Because I am curious." John said. _Damb he smells._ "What were you offered? Your gods and demons have no power here anymore. I signed off that bridge and was promised it would stay closed. So what are you after?"

The corpse laughed, high and loud. "For the chance to kill again! All we want to do is kill. Your doomed, doomed I tell you. Their on their way, and your all dead!" The corpse laughed until John put a bullet in his head.

"We need to move." The others stared at him, still digesting what they heard. "Move damb it! You heard him. If we stay, we will be slaughtered. Go, go go!" The team didn't think they ran for the exit. They ran through the tunnel, around the falls, and down the slope. They were about to run towards the woods when they were stopped by the sound of a hunting horn.

Out of the woods walked a legion of the undead. Shield users in front, infantry in the middle, guns and other distanced weapons on the flanks. Gun shots fired and the troops charged. Team Osiris beat-feeted it back down the tunnel.

"Choke point guys. Blake, Lucas, take cover in those buildings. Juane, we will have to hold them by hand. They can only come out one at a time." John tossed the last of his mines like Frisbees down the tunnel. A few seconds later they exploded. "Here they come!"

A seemingly endless amounts of enemies came out of the tunnel. The guns were working overtime, yet more still came. John had to fight a lot of enemies, and every time one fell 2 more took its place. He and Juane fought side by side, doing their best to keep the tide of bodies away from the guns. They were being pushed back, losing ground steadily.

John got separated from Juane. Side stepping a battle axe, he cut down a spear user and glance back. Juane had been pushed back and was bleeding out of a gash in his forearm. Blake had joined them, her gun out of ammo. Seeing her in danger, John pulled his hand gun and fired continues shots at the enemies around her, doing his best to fend of the attacks on himself.

The ground exploded in some points. Lucas was going through the groups explosives and throwing them like frag grenades. It helped, but more kept coming.

in the process of reloading, John took a slight cut on his chest. His aura was out. "Shit!" John turned on his semblance and jumped. He fired explosive rounds at the ground, taking out big patches of enemies. He landed and converted to shadow, popping up in patches of enemies and cutting in a circle like Link would and disappearing again.

The enemies started to thin out. Soon most of them were gone. As John finished of the last one, he noticed something now that his blood wasn't boiling with adrenaline. "Were are the bodies?" The basin was rather clear for such a huge battle.

"I don't know." Blake said as she limped over to him. She had received a bashing from a hammer that had dropped her aura. Other than that she was generally unharmed, except for a few cuts.

just then all the bodies exploded into rose petals. _Black rose petals._

Blake stumbled. "Oh no."

A cold, gleeful voice rang out through the battlefield. "Oh, yes. Long time no see, my little brother."


	20. Chapter 20: Carmon

The ground resonated with Carmon's voice. A small fissure was slowly opening in the middle of the basin, black flames erupting out of it. John staggered away from the intense heat, partly because Blake grabbed his shirt and was trying to drag him down the tunnel.

"We have to go!" She yelled. "Lucas, Juane, just run!" Her eyes were dilated with fear, the hair on the back of her neck standing up.

John grabbed her around the waist, stopping her from running. "She's right there." He grunted. "We can end it now!" Blake struggled to get free, clawing John in the process. Three red lines appeared were she scratched him, blood leaking out. The sight of the dark red liquid made her stop struggling.

"I'm sorry." She breathed, still tensed to run away. Carmon, however, approved.

"And your fond of such animals, brother?" The flames started to take the form of a human. The fire began to change color, turning pale. Patches turned red around the chest and blue on the legs. Only the top of the head remained black. "I think your pet needs to be put down." The figure suddenly burned brighter.

"Take cover!" John yelled. He threw Blake down the tunnel and dived after her. A sonic blast radiated out as Carmon took physical form. She wore a red tee shirt, ripped in half to expose her stomach, and torn blue jeans. She had a barbed earring in both ears. Her green eyes glowed with glee. She held a halberd behind her back, the blade reflecting her pale skin.

"Your no fun, brother." She pouted. She spun the weapon over her shoulder and pointed it at him as he exited the tunnel. Juane and Lucas weren't able to take cover and we're now sprawled unconscious on top of the rubble. "Shall we play again John? Or have you finally admitted I'm better than you?"

Blake came out of the tunnel and Carmon zeroed in on her. John noticed her shift in gaze and blocked Blake from view. "Stay back." John muttered. "What are you wagering on this match? These aren't sticks anymore."

Carmon walked towards him with a skip in her step. "Oh, I don't know." She said as a sadistic grin grew on her face. "I thought we would wager our lives. I stopped wagering goods and money along time ago. Don't you remember?"

John's gaze darkened. A cold aura seeped out of him. "You want to finish the job, don't you?"

Carmon clapped her hands in delight. "It would have gone much smoother if you didn't intervened."

"What is she talking about?" Blake asked. She had backed away from John, trying to escape the unfriendly aura he was giving off.

"Carmon came back." John said darkly. "And I killed her." Blake's eyes widened. John had just admitted to killing his family. What had happened between these two?

"A lucky hit." Carmon's smile was gone. She leaned forward, her weapon trailing behind her. "While I was trying to kill our mother, he stabbed me in the back. I was planning on letting him live, but I'm here to get at least one of my kills." Carmon ran forward at unnatural speed, aiming to run Blake through. John nocked her weapon away and kicked. Carmon dodged and hit him in the stomach with the wooden pole.

John fell to the ground coughing. Carmon stood over him and raised the halberd, planing on finishing him then and there.

Blake launched herself at Carmon, her fear replaced with rage. She cut and slashed at the girl, Carmon going on the defensive. Blake cut towards one leg, got blocked, and shot her in the other. Carmon yelled in rage and slammed the end of the staff into Blake's stomach, making her go flying back into the stone wall. She fell to the ground unconscious.

John jumped in and launched a flurry of fast pace attacks while advancing, making it look like he was dancing with his sword. Every time his blade hit his sisters halberd, he put more energy behind the blow to keep it moving. Carmon was pushed back to the middle of the basin, loosing ground after each attack.

Then the tide changed. John stabbed at her and she deflected the blow, retaliated with a kick. John blocked it with his forearm, drawing back his blade to finish the fight. Carmon dropped down and swept his feet out from underneath him.

John fell hard, barely managing to roll out of the way of the deadly blade. He activated his semblance and escaped via Carmon's shadow. The fight resumed, this time John on the defensive as he focused on dodging the whirling blade. He jumped back and went invisible, reappearing a second later with 5 clones. Carmon stopped, completely surrounded. She slowly turned in a circle, peering into each one of their eyes.

Carmon lunged. John attempted to dodge, but was too slow. She caught him in the shoulder, leaving a massive cut inches away from his throat. He cried out in pain, dropping his sword covering up the wound.

"You insult me." Carmon spat. "Don't you think I would be able to tell who my brother was?" She kicked him. She kicked him again. And again. She pulled a knife out of her boot and held it in front of John so he could see. "Do you remember this?" John nodded, his eyes wide. "You killed me with it." She put it against his neck, savoring the feeling of irony. "And I'm going to kill you with it."

A bullet grazed Carmon's cheek. She turned to see that Blake was back on her feet, firing her weapon as she charged. Carmon dodged out of the way as the bullets flew past, barely missing John. Blake attacked with _Gambol Shroud_ , cutting and stabbing at Carmon. Carmon fought back with her knife, her halberd discarded next to John.

"I don't give a fuck on what happened between you two in your world." Blake said through grit teeth. "But in this world, he's _mine_." Carmon fought well, but Blake was faster. _Gambol Shroud_ pierced Carmon's heart, their blurred bodies finally coming to a halt. Carmon collapsed on the ground, dead as a doorknob. "And don't you forget it."

Blake rushed over to John, who lay on the ground clutching his cut. She took of his shirt and ripped it into sheds, using them to tightly bandage his shoulder. He groaned quietly through his teeth when she touched the wound.

"Get some rest." She told him when she finished. "You need your strength to heal." She laid him down softly on the ground and went to check on the other two. Thankfully they had only suffered minor injuries from the blast, just a couple of scrapes and bruises. Juane stirred when Blake started to treat a scrape on his back.

"Wha-What's going on?" He tried to get up but Blake stopped him. She let him up as she finished with his worst wounds. She had left the ones that had stopped bleeding or started to scab alone. "Where's John?"

"He'll live. He took a pretty nasty cut in the fight, but it's over now." Juane glanced around, not believing Blake. He spotted John kneeling next to a body and finally understood what had happened. Blake shook her head. "I told him to rest, but as usual he didn't listen."

"I don't think that's it." Juane said. "I think it's him saying goodbye for the last time." He stood up and hefted Lucas over his shoulder. He looked at his freind sadly. "We should get him out of here." Blake didn't know if he meant John or Lucas.

John stood up and walked to them. Juane nodded and John led the way out. They walked in silence out of the blood soaked battlefield, into the light of day.

Hey guys, I finally finished the main storyline. I will probably still carry on with the story for a bit though. Leave a comment if you guys think it's a good idea for me to go back and write one about Lucas and Velvet. Thank you all for reading.


	21. Chapter 21: warrior spirit

John walked through town, his head full of things he had to do and things that he could do. He needed cat food, he needed to find a night job, he needed a resupply on dust. He started to go over the classes he had for the next week and started to review all he learned on them. At the same time he paid close attention to his surroundings. His mind was stretched to its mental breaking point. And to top of t all off he had a splitting headache.

"And Blake is going to chew me out when I get home." He muttered to himself as he dodged past a group of people. He had busied himself with as much as possible when they had gotten home, trying to distract himself from _that question._

Blake on the other hand started to slack off. She had stopped doing homework all together, spending more time with John. He had gladly taken on her work, but still found the time to worry about her change in behavior.

"Speak of the devil." John said as he passed a book store. Blake was slinking about in the romance section, avoiding eye contact. _She must be looking for_ _another one of those books._ He leaned against the brick wall and waited patiently. About 20 minutes later Blake emerged from the store with a paper bag hugged tightly in her arms. John, who had turned on his semblance, grabbed her shoulder and whispered ghoulishly, "hello, my kitty."

Blake literally jumped 10 feet into the air, dropping her book. John picked it up and began shuffling through the pages as if nothing had happened. "You asshole." Blake said, slapping him gently on the shoulder. He handed her book back and began to make his way down the street, Blake by his side. "What are you doing out here? I thought you were locked up in your room again."

"It's only 8:34." John said, checking his watch. "I got plenty to do." He wasn't going to admit he could no longer sleep without tumbling through a forest of guilt. Ever since she had died again, Carmon would visit him in his dreams. _Damb it. I thought about her again._ He could feel her presence start to creep into his head, causing him to freeze.

Blake stopped walking. John was frozen mid stride, his eyes locked in place. A cold sweat started to appear on his skin. "Are you ok?" She asked, pulling on his hand and breaking him free of his thoughts. He blinked several times before nodding bleakly. Blake knew something was wrong but let it slide.

John wandered through the town, his mind still whirling. Blake occasionally pulled him in one direction or another, but otherwise his feet took him wherever they pleased. He would have wandered straight into the pond if Blake hadn't caught him. "Thanks." He said absentmindedly as he started to wander away.

"Spill it." John stopped and looked over his shoulder. Blake had him by the upper arm, preventing him from leaving. She had a stern look in her eyes. "You've been spacey for almost a week. Spill it."

"This is my problem. Stay out of it." He broke her grip and continued to walk. All of a sudden, Blake's weapon flew out and wrapped itself around his neck. She yanked and John was dragged across the ground. She then proceeded to lay down on top of him and pin his arms down.

"You did this for me when I was out of it on catnip. Your actions pulled me back into reality. I am going to hold you down until you come back yourself." She glared down at the gloomy teen with determination. John sighed and closed his eyes. He flooded out his consciousness, enveloping Blake with his thoughts.

Blake was in John's mind. There were dozens of thoughts and strands of thinking all over the place, the information was overwhelming. Then her vision shifted. The thoughts weren't random. In fact, they formed chains. The chains swirled and wrapped themselves around _something_ , and whatever it was had a huge negative energy to it.

"If you really want me to come to reality, then you should know what I am hiding from." A wave of grief and anxiety washed over Blake as John dropped his chains. A dark, grieving, _female_ presence exploded out.

Blake scrambled backwards, releasing John. John immediately started throwing up his chains again, focusing on thinking of anything but her. "That was Carmon." Blake said, storming about in a panic with her hands on her head. "I thought I killed her. What is she doing here?" Rage lined each one of her words as she paced back and forth.

John was as still as a statue as he struggled mentally to tie his sister down. "You can't exactly kill what is already dead. Especially when they don't want to leave." He spoke through strained teeth. Carmon was fighting tooth and nail against him.

Once his head was a tornado of thoughts and complex equations again, John got up and grabbed onto a still pacing Blake. He held her to his chest and started petting her, calming her down and out of her rage.

"Why?" Black asked, tears flowing into John's shoulder. He leaned forward and rested his chin on her shoulder, humming. "Why can't she just stay dead?" John held his distressed girlfriend as she wept for him. This went on for half an hour, Blake seeming so fragile the whole time. John wanted nothing more than to take away her grief and make it his own, but it already was.

"The fight may be over, but mine is not." He whispered into her ear. "I will deal with it, I promise. You don't have to get involved." Blake had stopped crying and was now holding onto him tightly. She was shaking slightly in the cold.

"Pitiful." John looked past Blake at the sound of a voice. Carmon stood watching him, leaning on her halberd. "She gave me such a cold hearted look as she plunged that dagger into my chest too." Blake gave no sight of noticing Carmon, so John came to the conclusion that she was in his head.

"What do you want?" He asked as he rocked back and forth, cradling the faunus.

"I want a rematch." Carmon stated. "I will be waiting until you fall asleep. Stop running, if you don't want to keep hurting her." Damb, she really knew how to bend him to her will. Carmon turned around and walked away, fading into the shadows. As her form disappeared, so did her presence. John let out a sigh of relief as he let his chains disintegrated. Mental exhaustion finally set in, making him feel like he hadn't slept in years.

Blake let out a little "eep" as he picked her up and slid her onto his back. "Come on. Let's go home." Blake held onto his neck as he started to walk back to the school. For the first time in days, his mind was completely empty.

Carmon was waiting for him. As soon as John drifted to sleep he found himself in the woods that were near his house. "Brings you back, doesn't it?" Carmon asked, looking around at all the familiar trees.

"Yeah. I thought that if we were to fight, we might as well go all the way back to when we first started." He picked up a long, crooked branch that had been worn smooth in some places and tossed it to his sister. "You used to beat me up into a nice mush with this."

Carmon smiled with melancholy at the piece of wood. "This was my first halberd. Brings back memories." She spun the branch with expert skill, the movements as fluid as water. Mid swing the branch turned into her weapon, ending the stroke by pointing it at John. "I had the devil himself make it into my weapon. But it was thought full of you." John's gear had appeared. His shield was strapped to his arm and his sword was held in front of him. Carmon raised an eyebrow at the shield.

"Before I was equipped to take on large groups. The shield would have slowed me down." He shrugged off the unasked question. The two stared at each other, watch closely. Neither combatant dared move a muscle.

John blinked. Carmon lunged forward, moving to impale him. John side stepped behind his shield, the blow glancing off it. John counter attacked with an upper cut with the sword, which was deflected by the spin of the halberd. He dodged backwards as Carmon launched a series of savage cuts from both sides of her body, her weapon blurred. John noticed the sway of a little bobble of red string that connected to the back of the blade. It suddenly flicked from left to right. John slid across the ground as the slash came from the left. He remembered that the Chinese monks who used the weapon would use that red string to distract their targets, making them raise their guard on the wrong side.

"You've learned!" Carmon shouted as they continued to exchange blows.

"I had a good teacher!" John shouted back as he twirled his blade forward, slipping his sword behind the halberd and between her arms as Carmon tried to block the hit. He lunged forward and disarmed her, locking his hilt with her staff handle and kicking her in the stomach, breaking her grip. Carmon rolled with the blow, shaking off the hit easily. John tossed her her weapon back.

John dashed in swinging his sword from the left at her head. Carmon set her weapon to deflect the blow and at the last moment John changed the trajectory and landed a long cut up the front of her body. John disengaged.

Carmon fell to her knees, blood flowing from the shallow wound. The cut started on her right thigh and went all the way to her left shoulder. John could tell that it stung like hell.

"Get up." He ordered. "The fights not done yet." Carmon got to her feet and steadied her weapon. John waited politely for her to strike first. They had an unspoken rule to fight to the finish, never striking each other when they weren't fighting. It would leave a bad taste to finish the fight early.

Carmon strikes at his feet, forcing John to jump to avoid the attack. She started to do consecutive slashes again, slower this time due to being injured. John parried, dodged, and sidestepped the attacks, watching as her stamina slowly faded every passing minute. At one point he parried a blow and landed a deep cut on her right shoulder. Carmon flinched.

John waited patiently while she regained her composure before renewing his fight. He had collected a nice set of bruises, so he also had to decrease his speed. They exchanged blows for hours more until the fatal moment came to happen.

They were in the middle of exchanging a rather vicious series of blows when Carmon's leg gave out. As she stumbled, John shot forward and stabbed her in the chest. Carmon collapsed, John drawing his sword out of her chest. "Your fight is over, Carmon." He said, kneeling down next to her as her life quickly ebbed away.

A single tear ran down her face as Carmon looked up at her brother. "Thank you. You have made me proud." Just briefly, John was able to see his sister again. Not the violent, crazy one, but the caring sister who enjoyed a good fight.

"Sleep well, my sister." He whispered. Carmon started to glow, and then faded away. John was glad that she had been able to keep her warrior spirit until the end. The fight was over, and both sides found their better place.


	22. Chapter 22: a shopping trip

"So how did you get rid of her?" Blake asked at breakfast the next morning. They had arrived early and were waiting for the rest of their normal group to come down from sleepy town. Blake had snuck into his room and waited by his side all night. When John had asked why, she just said she was returning a favor.

"I gave her what she wanted." he said simply as he took a bite out of his biscuit. It was rather dry so he took a drought of his milk. That made it easier to swallow. "Before she went bad, Carmon used to love reading about ancient warriors. She adopted their practices, trained her body, and eventually joined them in heart and mind. And just like those warriors, she wanted a warriors death."

"Figures. She did go down twice by a knife from someone who wasn't even her target." Blake nibbled on a fish stick. John was highly amused at her choice of food and kept playfully poking her cheek, earning himself a nip on the hand.

"I've been fighting all night, let me have some fun." He pouted as he wiped fish stick crumbs off of his hand. Blake shot a sideways glance at him.

"A one on one fight with someone who is your equal in skill and superior in experience?" Blake said, waving a fish stick at him. "You were probably having the time of your life."

John gave a deep chuckle. "You got me there." They continued their friendly argument until the rest of tea RWBY showed up. It occurred to him that it might not be friendly forever. Half of him looked forward to the day, the other half was already packing his hobo stick to escape her PMS.

"We interrupting anything?" Weiss asked as she sat down across the table. To John's surprise, Lucas and Velvet sat down with her. Velvet was her usual shy self, but Lucas seemed oddly distracted. This made John curious.

 _Did you two do it?_ He asked the 2 of them teasingly. Both of them started to glow like Christmas trees, drawing the attention of the whole table.

"Absolutely not!" Lucas slammed his fist on the table. Velvet started to open her mouth, but fell into an uncomfortable silence. She whispered something to Lucas that made him glow even brighter red. John didn't even have to invade his head to know what Velvet just said.

"Do what?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Lucas glared at John, daring him to carry on the topic. "Their is a child here. Don't do that stuff in front of Ruby." The whole group started to snicker, confusing Lucas for a moment. "What? Is it something I said?"

"Yeah man!" John stated, wrapping his arm around Blake. "You forget I am the youngest person here. To the stage, I will call my girlfriend for my first witness." The group cracked up as Yang sat up straight and banged her cup on the table, calling for order in the court. John gave Blake a kiss and she grinned at his playful mood. Lucas glanced away from the couple, putting his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Do you guys have anything to do this afternoon?" Velvet asked them. Blake shuffled through her planner, quickly shutting it when John glanced over her shoulder. A unique look flashed between the 2 faunus and Velvet covered her mouth. "Oh, ok. We'll have fun." John glanced between the girls, confused by whatever had just happened. Lucas, on the other hand was mortified.

John excused himself from the table to fetch himself a waffle. While going through the line, he opened a mental link with Lucas. _You're going to tell me what I should be fearing, aren't you?_ He casually dropped a ladle full of blueberries onto his plate.

 _Oh yeah._ Lucas was uncomfortable in his thoughts, but John didn't probe. _Like humans, faunus have that time of the month. Just it's scarier and only happens once a year._

 _Great_. John thought sarcastically. _So I should avoid pissing her off?_ He walked back to his seat, not letting on that he was talking with Lucas.

 _No, their actually very friendly and outgoing during this time._ Lucas was holding Velvet's hand as he said this, feelings of deep affection crossing over the mental link. _Just don't go to sleep around them or get them excited. You might get through it unscathed_. John didn't like the sound of that last sentence.

"Well, I'm free." John said, effectively distracting everyone from the mental conversation that they were getting suspicious of. "Got any plans?"

Lucas leaned back in his seat, resting his hands behind his head. "I'm going down to Vale to meet an old friend. We don't have any classes on Sunday's. You want to come along?"

"Who's your friend?" Blake asked before John could open his mouth. Their was a hint of hostility in her voice, as if they were another girl trying to take away her boyfriend. John now understood what Lucas meant by coming out unscathed. Lucas assured Blake that he wasn't taking John to a love rival, Velvet glaring daggers.

"We'll come." John said, putting a hand on Blake's shoulder. "I get the feeling Blake will want to meet your friend." A look flashed in Lucas's eyes, but disappeared even faster. _Was that doubt?_ John wondered briefly if Lucas was hiding something, but wrote it off as a trick of the eye. Lucas would have told him if it was dangerous.

The pair of couples decided to walk into town together and do some shopping, meeting up around noon to meet Lucas's friend. Blake liked the idea, John silently mourning the fact his wallet was absolutely empty. _No sneaking away to buy shiny things for Blake today._ He thought to himself. He had amassed a small pile of gifts in his shadow that he could use, but he still had an impulse to buy whenever he caught her staring to long at something.

Blake, however, had plenty of money to spend on John. The only problem was he didn't point out what he wanted too often. It was really difficult to go birthday shopping with him when he rarely lit up to anything other than her. Eventually she got him a puzzle of a dozen interlocked rings that all came together to make a single gold ring. For the life of her she couldn't get them to fit together, but John dearly enjoyed it. He wore the ring every day since her put the annoying thing together.

The couple wandered down the shopping district, John trailing behind Blake. He kept rubbing his ring like it was a good luck charm. Blake was glad he loved it, but she really wanted to know more. As if on cue, the rabbit boy showed up.

John had dropped into a bathroom to relieve himself when Kyle appeared. Blake was bidding her time on a bench waiting when he popped into existence next to her.

"Do you want to know more about your boyfriend? It's actually a very interesting story." Blake flinched horribly. The kid had appeared out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of her. But what interested her more was that he know about John.

"What could you tell me?" She asked the boy. He had short brown hair that fit right in with his rabbit ears. He wore a pair of shorts and a gray tee shirt, a purple hoodie went past his waist. "What would you know that his girlfriend doesn't?"

"Oh, a lot actually. But it all depends on how much you can pay me." He got up and strut around like a little kid. "I'm Kyle. If it exists, I know about it." He gave a little twirl and had a childish smile on full display. "If your trying to buy something for him, he loves a challenge. Get puzzles, games, a fight, and a bit of romance. He will accept all these above any old decoration or that watch you were thinking about."

"How did you know about that?" She caught herself from yelling. How did he know about that? Was he fallowing them? Kyle held out a hand, obviously asking for some payment. Blake handed over the lien and he pocketed it.

"Price paid in full." He gave a bow and snapped his fingers. Blake blinked and he was gone. Blake looked around the street, the boy nowhere insight. Too much of a clean get away for Blake's liking.

"What are you doing?" John asked as he walked out of the bathroom. Blake had been checking her pockets to make sure that everything was there. Nothing was missing.

"Nothing." Blake said standing up. "Come on. There's a shop I want to take you."

2 Hours later the pair walked out of a hobby shop, John sporting a bag of puzzles and a strange sphere puzzle in his hands. The spear had three movable layers and if you pushed all the slides and aligned all the right holes a stone would fall out. John had chosen a sapphire one and was furiously working away at it.

They headed to the café that they had agreed to meet Lucas at for lunch. When they arrived, Blake got the biggest surprise of the day. There, across the table from her friends, was Sun.

hey guys, it's the author. I would like to thank everyone for reading my story, and recommend they take a look at the new one I recently started, called RWBY: Lucas and the rabbit. I also went back and fixed a bunch of mistakes from previous chapters, so they should make more sense.


	23. Chapter 23 the old and new

If they could see what John did at that moment back in high school, he would have been drafted into the football league in an instant. Blake balled up her fist and lunged at Sun, aiming to clean his clock. John rushed forward and tackled her, rolling to take the damage. Sun jumped to his feet and backed away, surprised at his ex's behavior. Blake withered out of John's grip and renewed her assault. John used her shadow to intercept her, this time pinning both of her arms behind her back and intertwined one of his legs with hers.

"Just one punch!" She begged, straining against John's grip. She attempted to kick him but couldn't get a good shot.

"I can understand the whole exes don't get along thing," John grunted. "But what in the world did he do to deserve being slaughtered?" Blake but slammed his balls, hard. His grip loosened slightly and she got an arm free, spinning and slamming her elbow into his back, dropping the teen.

"I'll tell you what he did." Blake hissed. He stole my bows and attempted to force me into public. Then he had the guts to try to black mail me into bed with them." It was safer to stare into medusa's eyes than Blake's.

Sun had drawn his weapon, not taking any chances. "I was drunk!" He shouted, cowering behind his staff. "Can you at least forgive me for that?" He produced a silver necklace from his pocket. "I tried to make up for it! Come on!"

"I would have accepted an apology!" Blake yelled, marching up to him. "Instead you try to buy me. But it doesn't end there." In a flash, _Gambol Shroud_ was at Sun's neck. "I caught him flirting with Ruby two days later. A week after that I found him balls deep in Yang. _And you dare stop me from beating the snot out of pretty boy here?_ " She wheeled to face John, making it his turn to cower.

"No no, you're right. Go ahead and hurt him." His voice had turned into a squeak, in his head he was imagining a very gruesome end for himself. "Just keep him alive." Blake turned her back on him and he sighed in relief. Of course, that was before Sun got sent flying through the window. There were some screams and a very loud moan of pain. _At least he will live_. John cringed at the damage.

"He's all yours." Blake told Lucas. She hooked her arm with John's and started to drag him down the street. "Come on. We don't need to be with them." John was silently praying he wasn't going to be her next punching bag. She dragged John all the way across town to the park and then dropped down next to their favorite pond. She curled up, wrapping her arms around her legs. The heat of her rage had subsided and now her expression was of bitterness and regret.

They sat in silence, Blake stewing her feelings and John plotting his course through the mine field between them. He wanted to wrap his arm around her but he didn't see how that would help.

"How would you react if I took him back?" Blake asked suddenly. John was thrown into a spiral by the question. "Speak honestly, because I don't know what to do." She pulled her legs toward her and hid her face.

John put his hands together, pondering the question. "For one, I would feel sad. I've spent more time thinking about you than you could count. But in the end, I think I would get over it." Blake looked up at him, tears in her eyes. Then with a very serious face, John added "but t I would shoot him on sight with every scrap of ammo I had if I saw him make you cry." Blake laughed a bit at the remark. "I'm serious." John assured her.

"I'm glad you haven't changed. I can still rely on you." The mood had lightened a bit, like a glass wall between the two of them had been removed. John pulled her over and gave her a peck on the lips, Blake playfully punching him.

John got to his feet, pulling Blake up with him. After a quick hug, he asked "are you going to apologized to him?" Blake shook her head.

"he deserved what he got." Blake said bitterly. "I have nothing more to do with him." The pair walked out of the park hand in hand, watched by a very pained observer.

( Change perspectives.)

Sun sat in the canopy of the tree, silent tears falling falling from the corner of his eyes. "There's no getting her back, is their?" The blow from the fist had hurt, but hearing those words had even more. He leaned back against the trunk, his loss weighing down on his chest. _I'll have nothing more to do with him._ Blake's words echoed through his head. It would have felt better to get hit again than it was to know that his love despised him.

"Hang on, I forgot my wallet." Sun looked towards the sound to find the teen running back to the pond. "I'll catch up." He dropped to the ground and felt around in the grass, looking for something. Blake went on ahead, telling him to meet up at the restaurant.

As soon as she had gone, the teen stopped crawling around and stood up. "Get down here." He ordered, not bothering to look up. "Blake might not admit it, but she is suffering just as much as you are."

"And how would you know that." Sun said heatedly as he dropped out of the tree. "When I am subjected to such _cold_ treatment, you only know of that _warm_ feeling she gives you." Sun jabbed the teen in the chest, his anguish now his rage.

"Because I know her better than you ever will." The teen caught his hand with ease, anger behind his neutral eyes. "If you truly loved her, you should have figured out how she felt. Instead you betrayed her." This time he threw a punch. Sun tried to retaliate but his fist went straight through his head. "It Damb near killed her! She opened her heart to you, and you go and fuck another girl!" Every time he paused, he punched Sun in the face.

"You don't understand." Sun stumbled away, the world spinning. "Faunus aren't like you humans. When we go into the heat, we stay in the heat." The teen let up the assault, crossing his arms and glaring at him.

"Explain what you mean by that, and I might give you some answers." Sun noticed the gun tucked away behind the teens back. He looked like the kind of guy to use it, too.

"It means when us faunus get in the mood to breed, the animal part of us takes over." Sun explained. "It won't go away until he have,... Intercourse." A look of alarm flashed in the back of the teens eyes and Sun realized why he wanted to know. "You're one lucky son of a bitch."

"No, I'm not." The teen leaned against the tree, a look of shock and hopelessness on his face. "We're not ready." He looked at Sun as if he had an antidote and he was slowly dying of poison. "It's reversible right? Surely you guys have a way to deal with it?"

Sun shook his head. "It only happens when we have chosen our mates. And before you ask, I chose Blake. Yang just got there first."

The teen sucked in air, as if the more he filled his lungs the more courage. "I guess you've held up your end of the bargain." He said. He sounded like he was resigning to a horrible fate. "I'll hold up mine. My name is John Straiter. It's November twenty first, right? I died just over two months ago. I came to this world via means that I can't tell you. I got together with Blake about a week ago, on my birthday."

Sun stared at John blankly. "I lost to a dead guy?" John laughed.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." John was no longer a scary guy intimidating the ex boyfriend. He was the fun guy with a joke to tell. "I guess you could say I sacrificed absolutely everything for her." He turned weightless and started to float around, doing acrobatics and screwing about. "Still, I should make compensation for stealing your girlfriend." He stretched out an arm and a thin black line appeared in his palm. The shadow stretched and shaped, forming into a long sword in an blood red sheath. John caught the sword and handed it to Sun. "This is a katakana. Back in my world, it was renowned for being the sharpest kind in existence. It is also one of the hardest to make."

"And what do I do with this?" Sun unsheathed the blade, marveling the curved edge.

"I'm in your head." To make an example, John took control of Sun's arms and demonstrated his sword skills. "Therefore I know your thoughts. If you still have your hatred when you learn to use it, kill me with it." John vanished into thin air at the end of the sentence. "But you won't hurt her."

"I have a feeling it won't be so easy."


	24. Chapter 24 the John movie

Winter descended upon vale faster than John had anticipated, virtually becoming a winter wonderland over night. Looking back on it, he found it quite foolish to not expect the change of seasons. It also put a stop to his job search.

"Looks like you still need to rely on me." Blake said happily a she found him mopping next to the window. Even with all the tests the had to study for, John was more worried about feeding his cat than paying attention to his studies.

"I know. Just keep writing down all I have to pay you when I start to make an income." Outside the rest of team RWBY and team JNPR were having a snowball fight from hell. If any mere mortal from earth had joined the fight, they would be torn to shreds.

Bella jumped onto the window sill and took a seat on top of John's head. Blake tried to remove her, but John allowed it. Together, the three of them watched the spectacular end of the fight, which was a massive hail of snowballs from Weiss storming down like a meteor shower on team JNPR.

"Three points to RWBY, two to JNPR." John commented as Juane's popped out of the snow. "Still no fatalities." Bella let out a mew from on top of his head. Blake began to pet her, causing her to purr and vibrate John's head. Blake laughed as his teeth began to chatter. John ignored it. "They seem to be doing pretty well considering there down a teammate."

"That's because my coat isn't suited for such activities." Blake said, scratching Bella's cheek. "Why don't you go join them?"

"I have no winter gear." John said. Turns out, not many people wanted his guns. He gave Juane the carbine to keep, along with all the ammunition he had. He was also surprised to find that the ammunition was produced in this world too. In other words, he had no business. On the sunny side, there had been no sign of Sun.

The snowball fight had resumed, the super human combatants throwing their cold projectiles with dangerous power. "Uh, so bored." Blake complained is she flopped down on the bed next to John.

"Would you like to play chess again?" John asked absentmindedly, enthralled by the fight a good 30 feet bellow.

"Not again." Blake wined. "Can't you ever go easy? My loosing streak is now 37:0." John had a habit of baiting the board with such tempting traps that looked like fatal mistakes, and he could lie so easily and twist her mind with his words, causing her to play right into his hands.

Bella waltzed down John's back and disappeared into the bathroom. John finally removed his jaw from the windowsill, a red mark on his chin. "You disappoint me. I never once asked for my opponent to go easy on me. That is why I am so good."

"Oh, such wisdom." Blake mocked. John silenced her with a scratch on the chin, wrestling her into a purring mass on his lap.

"Oh, so spoiled." John returned, moving his finger to her weak point under the chin, making her purr so hard she shook the bed. "Gotcha!" He exclaimed, stopping his scratches to poke and tickle her sides. Blake seized up with laughter, trying to wiggle away from him to no avail.

John eventually let up on his attack, seeing as Blake was having a hard time breathing. She tried to return fire, but he just vanished and reappeared against the door. "Resistance is futile, human! Give up!" She cries as she nocks him down.

The couple rolled on the ground, John hugging Blake with a smile on his lips. Then a sudden thought wiped the smile off his face. He pushed her away and stood up, returning to his previous position.

"What's wrong?" Blake asked, her ears drooping. "Is it something I did?" John could almost hear the musical thrum of his heart strings being played.

"You haven't done anything yet." John assured her. "It's what you _will_ do that concerns me."

Blake looked confused. "What do you mean?" She asked, sitting down next to him. "Do you think I would hurt you? Is that why you won't let me sleep in your room?" John had confiscated her key soon after the day they met Sun in Vale. "I promise that treatment was only for Sun, ok?"

John suppressed a grin at the memory of sun flying through the café window. "I'm not afraid of you hurting me." John said, having a hard time not hugging her. "I'm afraid of you hurting yourself." It finally dawned on Blake what he talking about. She gestured to her lower region and he nodded.

"So you know." Blake sighed, sitting against the wall. "How did you learn of our, _problem_." She asked as she wrapped her arms around her legs.

"Sun told me." John said, not lifting his head from the windowsill. "I know your in the heat. And that is why I refuse to lower my guard." Blake's ears were now completely drooped, her eyes closed gloomily. John couldn't stand that look. "If it makes you feel better, I'm sorry I have to be so strained."

"I forgive you." She said gloomily, making him feel as if she meant the opposite. They sat silently for a time, Blake lost in thought and John feeling as if a lock was on his voice. Eventually Blake's gloomily mood spread into John, and together their depression suffocated the room.

The atmosphere of the room finally got to a point were John was about to break into tears, Blake already had. He opened a mental link to Blake, hoping to convey his feelings as clearly as possible, not wanting to hurt her further. What he found saddened him more.

 _Does he not trust me anymore?_ Blake wondered to herself. _I've behaved myself for weeks, and I can go for much longer if I have to. I thought he was distracted. Please don't hate me!_ Her mental wails washed over John and he finally decided to end her suffering. He flooded his presence into her mind, his core exposed. He exposed everything to her, his thoughts, feelings, his past and present. And most of all, he showed her his soul. For one moment, she was John.

For a moment, Blake was stunned. Then as John physically pulled her in for a hug she began to comprehend what he was doing. He was apologizing. It was literally written on his being. _I miss you._ He told her. In her mind she could see him spinning around her as if he were in water, a look of worry and guilt on his face.

 _I miss you too._ Blake replied. She felt a hurt within John that resonated with what was inside herself. _I didn't know you could be alone while being surrounded with friends._

A memory drifted into existence as she thought this. It was of a five year old John in a new school. _We were fleeing from an abusive step father and I was forced to leave everything I had ever known._ He said sadly. _What's worse is I actually thought he was my dad._ The small kid sat in a crowd of smiling faces, not knowing a single one and put on a fake smile himself.

 _Hard to believe you were ever so small. Compared to the others, your tiny._ Blake commented. They watched as time elapsed, years going by. To Blake's surprise, the small child could easily get along with everyone around him but still stuck to himself. It wasn't for awhile that he made a friend that he truly saw as a friend. Blake also felt his sorrow of the departure a few years later. Out of curiosity, she searched for the child's name but could not find it without help. _Steven_.

 _Why is he so hard to find?_ Blake searched through the memories of the time, finding a muddled mess. It was like digging in mud.

 _I am lucky to even remember his name._ John chuckled sadly. _It was a long time ago, and so much has happened since then._ Time started to move again. Blake watched as the kid grew, and as he got older he got more trusting. Then that all went away in 4th grade when his size made him a target. She watched as John helplessly fought against a gang of people bigger than him. She watched him get punched and picked on. Through out all the fights he never landed a punch. _I'm ashamed to say that innocents got caught in the crossfire more than once._

John learned to fight to counter the kids, becoming more and more isolated. Allies with the same problem gathered around him, and he chose them as his friends. Amongst them was Alex. The two of them were complete opposites, but they got along so well that they stayed together for years to come.

The trip went all the way up to present day, at which point John released Blake from his mind. Blake blinked off some of her drowsiness, savoring the feeling of waking up in John's arms again. John took a bit longer to stir, but when he did he didn't push her away. They laid silently for a minute or two enjoying each other's company.

"Why did you show me your whole life?" Blake asked lazily. Neither one of them wanted to move, Blake because she was comfortable and John because he physically couldn't move out of exhaustion.

"I was trying to pull up what happened recently and ended up playing my whole existence. It really wiped me out, no funny business while I sleep." Before Blake could look up he had fallen asleep, his arms dead weight around her.

"I promise." Blake said as she curled up into a ball. What she didn't realize is that John had stolen a lot of her energy to stay alive and she quickly passed out as well.

(Change perspectives)

The girls walked into the school completely drenched, bits of ice clinging to their jackets. Ren and Juane had turned in earlier due to a few well placed shots that led to ice forming on their backs.

"We totally won." Yang said, her hands cupped behind her head as she walked.

"Nu-uh." Nora argued. "I had you on the ropes!" The two started to throw retails of their best shots and compared their strength. Weiss shook her head in disapproval while Pyrrha and Ruby chatted happily about the match.

"To bad Blake didn't show, or else we would have had even teams." Pyrrha commented on the absence of the faunus.

"She stayed inside with John." Ruby said brightly as she walked, her arms swinging merely besides her. "She said something about not being able to be with him at night or something." Pyrrha blushed when she heard the explanation, but refused to tell Ruby what she was all red for.

"I'll go check on those two." Yang said with a wink, hurrying away before Nora could pick up the argument again.

"I really pity them for having Yang as a friend." Weiss said in her normal pessimistic attitude. Nora and Ruby didn't get it.

Yang arrived outside of her targets door within a few minutes, a mischievous smile on her face as she thought about what she would see on the other side of the door. She pressed her ear to the door, straining her hearing to get just a _hint_ of what was going on on the other side of the wood.

It was silent. "Are they already done?" Yang whispered to herself as she pushed the door open. The couple laid unconscious under a blanket on Bella's bed. Blake had her bow removed (this had become common place when she was with John because he liked her ears) and was smiling contently in her sleep. John on the other hand, didn't look to peaceful. His brow was covered in sweat and his eyes were scrunched up. Yang felt his forehead, only to back away from the unexpected heat.

"Wake up." She hissed as she poked the teen in the face. "You're in trouble. Wake up." John came into reality, but just barely. He could hardly keep his eyes open because he was so tired. Yang dug around under his bed and found a health bar. "Eat." She told John as she shoved the fruit flavored snack in his face. The teen hesitantly obeyed, eating the food with a obvious effort.

John finished the bar after a few bites and Yang handed him another. "Thank you." John said groggily after the bar disappeared down his throat. "I over did it with the semblance again." Yang handed him a water bottle and he downed it.

"Be more careful." Yang whispered. "Blake would be very sad if you died from malnutrition after you two made up."

John chuckled. "I wouldn't have died." He said proudly. "I've been more sick than that. I'm just tired." The teen settled back into bed and closed her eyes.

"You seriously know how to disappoint." Yang told him. John opened one eye and raised his eyebrow. "She has been in the heat for almost a month now. I was expecting to come across a sex scene."

"Not a chance." John said weakly, drifting back to sleep. "I won't let her go through the pain of having a child before I am sure she is ready." Yang clicked her tongue and shook her head.

"You're to nice for your own good." The teen only snored in response. "I'll make this right." Yang set to work, playing the devils advocate for Blake's success.

 **Hey guys, it's the author. I apologize for taking so long to upload this. The trimester is almost at an end and I decided I needed a well deserved break from all thing work related. I will be uploading another chapter for my other story later in the day.**


	25. Chapter 25 to thank or hurt Yang

The door of team RWBY's door fell down as John's fist collided with it, filed by rage and embarrassment. The girls shouted, waking up to a seething teen glaring at them. Weiss shot back under her covers almost immediately, being completely nude.

"What the hell!?" The heiress screeched. John found this highly amusing, but it hardly made a dent in his rage.

"Yang, front and center!" John barked. Yang's body stiffened and then she relaxed her muscles, pretending to be in a deep slumber. John grabbed a hold of her bunk bed and vaporized the sucker, covers and all. The blonde girl fell to the ground with a thud, wearing only an orange tight tee shirt and panties. "And seriously, why do you people insist on sleeping nude?"

"Huh?" Yang said with false drowsiness. She rolled over and glanced around, searching for a blanket to pull over herself. John slammed his foot into the ground by her shoulder, taking careful aim not to hit her.

"Yang, I've had years of playing dead to avoid being caught by my parents whenever I was interrogated during the night. It never worked, but I still got good at it fast." He glared down at her, configuring his body to look as menacing as possible. He might as well have been trying to sweet talking a rock.

Yang dropped the act. She rolled on her side and gave him the famous grin she had. "So, did you come to thank me?" She said smugly.

"You better be grateful I woke up first, or else I would have to hurt you so bad you'd be the one stuck in a wheelchair." John bent down and pulled her up by the front of her shirt. The shirt stretched and gave him a view of her massive boobs, obviously pleasing Yang.

"Aggressive, aren't we?" She said seductively. Her hand shot forward to John's crotch, her grin faltering. "Wha? Why aren't you hard?" John laughed coldly and pinned her to the wall.

"I literally sleep with my girlfriend and she has never caught me hard." Yang's grin was gone now, a look of confused fear on her face. A teenager whose she couldn't seduce, how was she suppose to control him? "Mental power can control the entire body. Keep your blood flow under control, and you can stop awkward boners."

"And when did you learn to do that?" Weiss asked as she walked out of the bathroom. She and Ruby seemed unfazed by John's actions, just it chalking up to her screwing with his relationship again.

"When she had to nurse me when I had broken legs." He replied simply, removing the menace from his voice, quickly putting it back when he returned his attention to Yang. "I woke up to a naked Blake getting herself off with my side. After a discreet search of her memory, I found that she was not responsible. I then found the cameras and the alarm set to vibrate under her pillow. Quite enough to not wake me, but more than enough to wake Blake." He produced said alarm from his pocket, smashed.

"And you think it was me." Yang asked, acting innocent again. John's other hand disappeared into shadow and 2 dozen small cameras overflowed out of his palm. He dropped most of them and flipped over one, showing her name in large, yellow letters.

"Talk about death bye ego." John was really starting to like Weiss. Her smart ass bitchy attitude really added to the humor of the situation.

John summoned more strength than he was accustom to using and threw Yang, the bed reappearing before she hit the ground. She bounced once on the mattress. "There my cameras now." John said as he left the room. "And I think me and Blake can decide when to step it up. Stay out of this."

John went back to his room and woke Blake, whose was confused by her lack of clothes. She picked up her clothes and took off down the hall when he told her Yang's plot and how it had failed, probably to give her tips on her next attempt. John took the time to gather their materials, sneaking a toy mouse into Blake's bag. After putting out food for Bella, he met up with Blake and they walked down to breakfast.

Team JNPR was already at the table when team RWBY and John arrived. Pyrrha was delighted to see Blake and John holding hands again, asking questions about what had happened.

"Classified." John said, starting on a large stack of waffles. With his feelings in check, John no longer had the rage to draw energy from and he was absolutely famished. _It was a bad idea to pull that stunt when I over exhorted myself yesterday._ He thought as he vacuumed the food down his gullet.

Pyrrha jumped the wrong conclusion, going deep red like her hair and mumbling congratulations. Yang straitened her out, telling her that John had beat her again. Juane, clueless as ever, didn't quite understand what was going on.

"Pyrrha thought we did what you two did about a week and a half ago." John said, now making him as red as Pyrrha. Juane started to make excuses and was trying to cover up that he knew what he was talking about, and the whole table laughed. "Dude, the whole floor heard you two." Pyrrha was not quite when she was in bed, and John wasn't kidding.

The conversation generally drifted away from the topic, Yang fighting the whole way. They were about to head to class when Weiss showed a power John had no idea existed. His eyes tracked the little snow golem as it waddled down the table and fetched its master's scroll. Weiss pocketed her scroll and the golem turned into a flurry of snowflakes like the reverse of Olaf. The first thought in his head was he wanted one.

The first class of the day was professor Port, one of John's best subjects and frankly one of the most boring. At least today's rambling wasn't about a fishing trip. Professor Port had learned his lesson the hard way that John wasn't going to listen to his stories, it becoming a common occurrence for him to be summoned for fighting grim. At least, that's what John had thought.

"Mr. Straighter! Will you pay attention to me when I am teaching." Port called out, stopping his infamous story about the beowolf. John had been polishing his bone dagger, cut from the tusk of the first boarbatusk he had ever killed.

"I do pay attention when you're teaching." He said, not looking up from his job. "But I've already heard this one." Port swelled up like a balloon. The two of them had not gotten along ever since Port had tried to kill him, getting publicly embarrassed and John becoming famous.

As usual, John was called down to the floor to fight another grim. The floor opened up and an absolutely massive cage emerged, rattling at the wrath of the creature inside. "Let's up the ante." Port said with a triumphant grin. "No sword, no shield, and no hand gun. Go." Port slammed the release on the cage and jumped out of the way. A nethermore burst end out, buffing everyone in the room with the wind from its wings.

The fight took exactly 2.5 seconds. John materialized all of his guns and blasted the thing to hell, preventing it from doing any more damage. Unfortunately, he forgot to leave the RPGs out of it and got caught in the explosion, being thrown back. One giant dead bird, 58 guns, and over 200 shell casings fell to the ground.

"You sir," John panted. "Are absolutely crazy." He was light headed from the over usage of his ability. Admittedly, he probably didn't need to use so much fire power, but he had panicked at the sight of such a monster. He got up and started to make the guns vanish one by one, restoring each one to his shadow. When he finished, he took his seat next to Blake and promptly fell asleep.

There's was a dull murmur through out the class as Professor Port and a few volunteers cleaned up the Swiss cheese of a corpse. "You know, that's the first time I've seen him panic." Blake told Ruby.

"I'm surprised this nut even has a job." Weiss said. "It's like he is trying to kill him."

Ruby, on the other hand, thought differently. "I think it's that John keeps upstaging him. Though admittedly, we have been in the way of fire recently." Just last week, Port had released a whole pack of beowolves on John, forcing him to dispatch them all quickly in order to stop them from getting to the students.

"We could have protected ourselves." Weiss pointed out. "I think he just wanted all the kills. Just like in his games." She had a grudge like attitude to playing chess with John, seeing as he enjoyed to lead her around and kill all of he pieces, affectively clearing the board.

"I really pity you." Blake said. She had found out that John had been going easy on her, toying with her when she played. When he face off against Weiss, the battle was brutal. "He could out lie a snake."

The bell rang, waking up John from his slumber. He was slightly unsteady on his feet, but that was cured by a quick snack. Not shortly after class, a small rabbit faunus boy walked up to John and handed him 20 lien and walked away. John nodded and pocketed the money.

"He looks familiar." Blake said as the boy vanished. John raised an eyebrow.

"You know Kyle?" He asked, surprised that she knew the sneaky little bugger.

"I met him in town when we went into town with Lucas." She carefully avoided mentioning Sun. "Who is he?"

"An info dealer." John said. They turned into the library, John off to search for another fantasy book and Weiss to hold her study group for Yang and Ruby. "He must have gotten the video of the most recent fight." He picked a large book off the shelf, flipped through it, and put it back. "I make him a profit and he pays me for all the information on me that is added to his data bank." He picked up another book and this time held onto it. "It should be no surprise. My videos are rather famous. Especially the crippled ones."

"I thought you said you were broke." Blake said suspiciously. The rounded a corner and she suddenly ran forward, catching sight of a book she wanted. John chucked as he watched her hop up and down, trying to reach a copy of _Ninjas of love, volume 2._

John grabbed it of the shelf and handed it to her. "I couldn't read this from across the room, but you could find it instantaneously." She blushed at his teasing. He ruffed up her hair, giving her a childish grin. John internally celebrated at changing the topic.

The pair found a secluded corner and sat down and started to read their respective books, Blake leaning against John's shoulder and John's arm draped around her. Together, they drifted off into their own private worlds, only bound to the real world by the feeling of fall against back.

A thought popped into Blake's head as she read her book. "Hey John?" He hummed, signaling he heard her. "Remember the first day we actually had fun together?" He nodded, not removing his eyes from his book. Blake reached over and put the book down, making him pay attention to her. "Yang knew back then and teased you. You got so embarrassed you hid from me the rest of the day."

"Yeah." John put the book aside, marking his page. "I still have that picture."

"I thought I deleted that." John hugged her as she sat on his lap, cradling her. "Ever wonder what would have happened if I didn't find you in that tree?" She said, purring as John's body heat encased her.

John had thought of it. "Now that I think about it, I really do owe that girl a lot, don't I?" If that hadn't happened, Blake wouldn't have known his secret so soon. Someone else would have probably been his caretaker, and they probably wouldn't be dating. He might have even lost to Carmon. "Maybe even my life."

"You should listen to her more often. She has good intentions." She said it in her normal tone, but John could see the rat trap she had carefully laid at his feet.

"No sex." He said sweetly, kissing her on the head.

"Damb it!"


	26. Chapter 26: now and forever

"So, let me get this straight. You don't have Halloween, thanksgiving, Easter,or the 4th of July, but you have Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's Day?" John was extraordinary confused by the small pile packages at the foot of his bed. Never being good with dates, he didn't even know what day it was other than Saturday.

"Well, there's the Vital festival." Ruby chipped in. Apparently, Christmas was about giving out presents to family and friends in this world, not celebrating Cris's birthday. "Do you have all those holidays in your home world?"

"Yes, back on earth we did." John said. "But I think it was an excuse to party. It's kind of creepy there on the same dates though." It probably had to do with Monty Oum, may his soul rest in peace. _It would be perfect if he could be reborn here. I heard he was a major gamer._ John thought. _Gamers don't die. We just respawn. He chuckled at his joke._

"So it's safe to assume you have nothing for us." Weiss her grumpy self, her face screaming Ho Ho No!

"I don't have enough money to shop for a Schnee." John claimed in his best impression of a British accent. Blake covered up a laugh by playing it off as a sneeze, (by the gods, what skill!) but Yang wasn't as skilled. She openly laughed, Weiss rolling her eyes.

"I don't need another butler." Weiss said. Ruby ambushed her from behind, forcing a Santa hat on her head. Blake and John watched with amusement as the two fought. Ruby eventually won, Weiss giving up when the younger girl pulled her puppy dog eyes.

"You have something, don't you?" Blake whispered in John's ear. John smiled, scratching her ears.

"Maybe." He said playfully. "I'll make a bet that you can't find it."

"What are you wagering?" Blake asked. A plate of warm cookies appeared on Bella's bed, startling her. Ruby rushed over, thanking John in little squeals.

"If I win, I want a date." John touched noses with her, both of them smiled. Weiss and Ruby noticed, and silently slipped out of the room. Yang hung around, hoping for a show.

"And if I win?" She clasped his head, leaning in and giving him a kiss.

"How about my virginity?" He pulled her in for a hug, kissing her passionately. Blake threw her arms around him, leaning so that they ended up lying down with her on top. The mood was broken when Yang started to clap. They regained their composure, sitting up on the bed and straightening their clothes. "I doubt you will find it though."

"It's in your shadow." She said matter of factly, convinced she just won. She got off the bed and turned around to face him. "Well? Why aren't you stripping?"

"You guessed wrong." John pulled off the chesire grin. "If you go to Kyle, you could probably get it for 250 lien." John laughed as she swore like a sailor. "You were foolish to think it would be easy. Of course, you could always trust what I tell you. Just like in chess!"

"Well played sir, well played." Yang clapped, generally impressed. John took a bow, turning on his semblance and drifting through the wall.

"You can find me downstairs at breakfast." He said in his butler imitation. He sank to the ground floor, scaring the shit out of a few people. To his delight, he caught up to Weiss and Ruby, almost making Weiss smash his skull in when his face suddenly shoved it's way through a wall.

Weiss screamed and tried to punch him, the fist going straight through him. "Hey John." Ruby said, completely unfazed by his sudden appearance. John made a mental note that she was in fact a leader type and not a mascot. "How did it go?"

John walked out of the wall and let Weiss give him a good one. "I sent Blake on a scavenger hunt. Weiss, can you please hand me the little black box I stashed in your pocket?"

Weiss quickly searched her pockets and pulled it out, completely bewildered. "How did you do that?" She asked, her face turning red.

"Relax. I knew she would have guessed correctly immediately, so I stashed in on you with my Spector as you two sneaked out of the room. Forgive me, but I had to do it." He explained the bet to them as they fetched the food.

"What did you get her?" Weiss asked, examining the box. It was made out of an ashy wood and was about 3 by 1 inches. It was kind of dinky for anything expensive.

"It isn't a dead animal, so stop eyeballing it." Lucas arrived with Velvet shortly before Blake walked in the room and discretely pocketed it. "You know were to hide it." He said under his breath.

"What's the first hint." Blake demanded, taking a seat next to John.

John crossed his arms and sat silently, thinking hard. He then started to say a riddle, not opening his eyes. "A metallic gleam, in a dark void, inside a cave, this is no ploy. Dozens of questions, you will probably ask, but to find the gift is your task. No answers will be given, except in lies, your quest will end, when the sun dies." John was proud of himself, making up the riddle in the form of a poem on the spot.

Blake ran the sentence through her head, trying to fit the pieces together. "Emerald Forest?" She guess. John shook his head, pleased that she was taking it literally. "Did you bury it?" Another shake of the head. Several more unsuccessful guesses were given before they finished their food. She was still guessing when they left the room.

"Is it on the school grounds?" She asked.

"It's not on the ground." John said, staring at the ceiling. "Look up."

"That makes no sense. Why look u... Oh." There, hanging from his feet on the ceiling, was Kyle. He had his arms hanging down, his shirt tucked under his belt. His shorts had been changed for jeans, which had fallen to his kneecaps. A slight trickle of blood dripped from his nose.

"Hey Kyle, how's it hanging?" John called up. Kyle gave an unstable little giggle, blood being shaken loose from his nose.

"The view up here's amazing. I could only imagine how much money I would make if I just had a camera." Yang took it as a compliment, jiggling her chest. The blood started to flow just a little bit faster.

"He's been up there to long. Ruby, think you can get this one?" John turned to the hooded girl as he spoke.

"Sure thing." Ruby took off, actually running up the wall. She ran so fast that she yanked the metal braces securing the faunus to the ceiling came off with him. When she set him down on the ground, he staggered around before his legs gave out and he fell down. John personally expected her to shoot the braces, but this worked. It was even amusing to watch the rabbit faunus walk like a drunk.

"Thank you." Kyle told her, his head still red with all the blood trapped in it. As they watched, his skin color went back to normal and his ears no longer looked like slippers.

"You're welcome." Ruby said cheerfully. "So, uh, what were you doing up there." She looked up at the ceiling, obviously damaged.

"A client led me into a trap and Cardin finally got me." Velvet gasped and started to check her brother for injuries. "I'm fine, sis. Come on!" She had shoved a tissue into his nose for the bleeding.

"At least you're ok." Ruby, in her bright nature, didn't seem to worried about it. Then again, she could probably feel the vengeful aura wafting off of Velvet. "Want to come hang out with us? We were going to play truth or dare." The little rabbit ears perked up at the name of the game. The devious little bugger was probably going to sell whatever he learned.

"Ok, I'm in." His notebook popped into existence in his hands. Ruby led the way to her room, chatting happily with Kyle. John and Lucas had tried to warn her that he was just getting information out of her for business, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Friends help friends, right?" John honestly could not figure out how carefree she could be. Ruby gladly answered questions about herself and her team, sometimes having to be stopped from going to far. But the most shocking thing that happened was when Kyle started to share about himself.

"Ok, you two." John interrupted their conversation. "Leave some of it for the game." Ruby unlocked the door and the group walked in, taking seats in a circle. Yang produced an empty soda bottle to randomly select the one to get the truth or dare. "Who wants to go first?" John asked. Yang put the bottle in the middle and spun it, the tip pointing to Weiss.

"I guess that would be me." The heiress said. She spinner the bottle, landing on Lucas. "Truth or dare."

"Dare." Lucas was confident that he could take whatever she threw at him.

"I dare you to win a chess match against John." Lucas shrugged. Sounded easy enough. They broke out the chess board and Lucas lost in three turns. Weiss was pleased that it wasn't her loss this time.

Lucas removed the bishop from his king's space. "I'm next." He gave the bottle a spin, landing on Yang. He thought for a moment, then asked, "How many guys have you slept with?" John sweat dropped. So much for a PG rating.

"by my count? 34." For some reason, John was not surprised. Yang spun the bottle, landing on Blake. "Truth or dare."

"I'll take a truth." It would be way to dangerous to take a dare from Yang.

"When did you first like John?" Velvet and Kyle perked up, both interested in her answer. Blake blushed.

"I guess the first time I actually loved him had to be when he saved me from that nightmare." Now the rest of the group was paying attention. Blake had never told them this story. Blake sent a sideways glance at John, as if asking for permission. He nodded, gesturing her to continue. "I was dreaming about the night I first met Adam. That was also the night I lost my family." She clutched her arm, as if trying to comfort herself. "He saw I was suffering and dove into my mind, drawing out of my nightmare and into his memory. Being it was his first time, he wasn't able to hold it for long. Before we parted, he told me to have good dreams. It also reminded me of the first night we were here this year. His voice popped into my head, vowing that he would do everything in his power to make the world better for me."

John blanched. "You actually heard that? I thought I was just making the vow to myself."

"Yes, I heard you." Blake said lovingly. She spun the bottle, her face going serious. The bottle landed precisely on John. "Now were is the gift?" John got the feeling she did that on purpose.

"I don't know." Blake crossed her arms, thinking he was lying. "No, seriously." He opened his mind and connected to Kyle, who connected to the rest of the group. A memory started to play, explaining how the box disappeared. First it shadow traveled into Weiss's pocket as she snuck out of the room, then into Lucas's possession, and the order to give it to Pyrrha to hide, seeing as she would be out of town with Juane this evening. Pyrrha would call at about a half hour after sun down, telling John the location.

"Damb it. Stop thinking ahead already." Blake was obviously ticked off that her plan had failed. John reached over and spun the bottle, landing on Kyle. He gave a maniacal smile and evil laugh.

"Pick your poison. Truth," he paused for dramatic effect, making it appear as if he was relishing the idea of the next word, "or dare." He gave an evil laugh. His intimidation technique worked and Kyle chose truth, truly afraid of what he might be forced to do. John's demeanor brightened back to its original state. "Ok, good. I had nothing for dare anyways." He took pleasure in the looks he got from his friends. "Who do you like, Yang or Ruby? I know it's one of them."

"Oh, you evil bastard." Kyle claimed going red. All eyes were trained on him, the pressure intense. He looked down at his lap, embarrassment painted on his face. "Fine." He said, then mumbled quietly. "Ruby." He glanced at the girl in question, whose happened to be sitting right next to him.

To nobodies surprise, Ruby was unfazed. "Ok." She said brightly. Everyone else sweat dropped. "What? I have no problem with it."

"Um, ok. Let's continue on." John gestured for Kyle to spin the bottle. And so the game continued. The time passed quickly, by the end of the game, everyone had been thoroughly embarrassed and Kyle could probably make one hell of a profit of the girls fanboys. The game finished when Kyle had to leave for a meeting with a client, Ruby opting to go with him. Blake, on the other hand, went to tear team JNPR's room apart. John tagged along.

John had to explain why a frantic faunus was searching their room to a very confused Ren and Nora. By the time he had finished answering questions, Blake had finished her search, coming up empty. They apologized for the disturbance and left.

"Do you give up yet?" John asked. They ate a quick lunch before Blake resumed her search.

"No." Blake said. They had somehow ended up on the froze roof, searching in every nook and cranny. "And to believe I couldn't answer pocket." She walked over to a shaded spot, digging in the snow. John didn't want to point out that there was no foot prints, so in couldn't be up here. "And why are you following me?"

"Because you are likely to hurt yourself like this." Blake rolled her eyes. They continued to go around the campus, checking just about everywhere. Blake was getting more desperate the more time passed. She even skipped dinner to keep looking.

John's scroll went off while he ate. Glancing around to make sure Blake wasn't around, he opened it and read the message. It read: the box is in your room, inside the cat food bag. John sent a quick thank you message and closed the scroll.

(change perspectives)

Blake walked back to John's room, crestfallen. The sun had gone down and she had lost the bet. Pyrrha would be calling John in about 45 minutes and she would have received whatever cheap gift John had bought her.

Blake opened the door, finding John feeding Bella. She had a new bell tied around her neck, a gift that John had gotten her. "Welcome back." John greeted her, petting the cat a few times before standing up.

"I lost." Blake sighed drearily. John led her over to sit on his bed, putting his scroll on the nightstand. Blake stared at the device, waiting for it to ring.

"You lost the bet, sure. But you should know I never lose." John said, giving her a gentle hug. "But one should never be sad on Christmas. Trust me I've been there."

"Oh? I don't even get your gift for another half hour. Permission to be sad." Her gloominess outdid her normal attitude.

"Denied." John reached into his shadow and pulled out a little black box. Blake's golden eyes widened at the sight of the dingy little thing. "I received my information early. Here, take it." He handed it to Blake, who took it tenderly. The box suddenly began to glow, changing color and shape. A small, soft box of red and gold sat in her hand, still warm from its change. Blake opened it cautiously.

Inside the box sat a plain, silver ring. "Put it on." John urged. Blake complied, putting it on her ring finger. The metal began to change as soon as it was in place. A soft heat seeped into Blake's hand as the ring turn black, blue cracks appearing all along the surface. The ring adjusted to the right size, finishing with a beautiful polished surface of black metal like John's sword, the blue streaks glowing softly.

"How did you do this?" Blake breathed. None of what she just saw should be possible. It was like magic.

"With a lot of help." John said. "Needless to say, the materials don't exist. It with never get damaged, tarnish, or fade." His voice had turned grave. He grabbed Blake's hand, putting his other hand on top of it. He then got down on one knee, his intentions in the open. "Blake, we've only been together for a short time, and I have nothing to give you, but will you be mine, now and forever?"

Blake's other hand covered her mouth, her eyes glassy with tears.

"Yes."


	27. Chapter 27: the end

It has been seven years since John's years in Beacon. Seven years since his first arrival under that tree in the emerald forest. Seven years since he first met Blake. Seven years since he last lost at anything, the pain of his broken legs still in his memory. And it has been seven years since he last regretted his life.

The sunlight glared through John's eyelids, waking him from his peaceful slumber. "Get up! You can't sleep in today." Blake had yanked open the curtains, the morning sun shooting lasers at John.

"It's unusual for you to be up first." John mumbled sleepily, sitting up and rubbing the gunk out of his eyes. Blake was already dressed. She wore a black long sleeve shirt and gray pants. She was tying her black bow when John dragged his weary body out of bed, grabbing a towel on his way to the shower. After a thorough cleaning, he walked out with the towel around his waist. Blake had left him a change of clothes on the bed, neatly folded and in a line. John tossed the jeans aside, opting for his favorite black sweatpants with a green streak on each side, running from the waist to the ankle.

After donning the dark blue tee shirt, he made his way down to the kitchen. Blake was at the stove, making pancakes in one of the griddles. Their five year old twins, Angela and Max, sat doodling at the table. Blake gave a disapproving look at his choice of leg wear as he sat down at the table, then turned her attention back to cooking.

"What'cha drawing?" John asked Max. He was small for his age and had dark black hair, almost matching Blake's. He even had her ears. He had brown eyes like his father, always examining the world around him.

The little boy smiled as he raised his paper, showing what appeared to be a child's impression of marine life. "I'm drawing the sea!" Max said proudly. "Here's some seaweed, here's a hermit crab, oh, and here's a shark." He pointed out each one as he talked about them.

"Cool." John turned his attention to Angela. Unlike most kids, who had trouble coloring in the lines, Angela could often outdraw the coloring books they gave her. Even though both parents had black hair, she had long brown hair that grew past her shoulders. John claimed it was probably a recessive trait from his mother. She had golden eyes, very much like those that Blake has.

"I'm drawing your sword." John looked over at his daughter's paper, and sure enough, there was an accurate representation of his sword. Written in neat hand writing at the bottom corner was her name.

"Nice." John reached across the table and ruffled her hair, careful not to scratch her ears to hard. "It takes mortals like me and Max a long time in order to draw like this." He laughed as Angela blushed. "Did you know that when I was your age, I couldn't draw a fish for the life of me?"

"Really?" The children didn't believe him. The man who could draw dragons with ease, not being able to draw a fish?

"No joke." They stopped talking when Blake put a plate stacked high with pancakes in front of each of them. The children started on theirs, only to be cut off by their dad. "What do we say?" He asked them, their plates disappearing into his shadow.

"Thank you." They said in unison. Blake sat down and their food reappeared. Conversation sprung up as the family ate. As he looked around the table, John was glad he died. He wouldn't have swapped this life for anything.

"So what time do we have to be there?" John asked, polishing off the last of his food.

"At nine thirty." Blake said. John checked his watch. They had over an hour to get there. He collected up the plates and took them to the sink to wash. Blake ushered the kids to get their shoes on, fretting over the state of their clothing. John cracked a grin at her anxiety.

"Blake, calm down." John said calmly, tying Max's shoes. "It will all work out in the end. It always has." He looked over his shoulder to his lover. "We can't control everything."

"You've gotten lazy." Blake said, taking his advise anyways. Over the years of living with the guy, she had learned the hard way that John had a habit of pulling magic out of his ass at the last moment.

"I'm not lazy." John said. "I just have faith. And the knowledge that I can fix it with ease if something goes wrong." Blake have him a peck on the cheek and he pulled her into a quick hug. Together, hand in hand, they led their children out to the car, and the next phase of their story.

(Time skip)

John stood up on the podium, his tuxedo uncomfortably hot. He was uncomfortable with all the stares on him, like he was an animal on display. He tried to clear his mind, but when he did the realization of what he was doing hit him hard. _This is insane! I've actually done it. This is really happening._

The organ began to play a familiar tune, making John's heart skip a beat. His attention was drawn to the back as the doors swung open, the most strange and beautiful sight he had ever seen entered the room, escorted by Lucas.

Blake walked down the aisle, clad in a brilliant white dress and a deep blush on her face. Trailing behind her was Angela, flowers decorating her hair. John's hear caught in his throat as he made eye contact, being struck dumb by the sight of her. She had removed her bow, her ears standing proud on display.

John didn't hear a word that the pastor said, hardly remembering to breath. He was brought back to reality when something flashed in Blake's eyes. "I do." He said, letting out a breath. Blake gave hi a warm smile as the pastor asked her the questions, and she replied likewise.

"If anyone should object to this couples marriage, speak now or forever hold your silence." The man glanced around, convinced that no one would stand up. He was wrong.

"I object." Blake was surprised as Sun rose out of the crowd and made his way to the front. She glanced at John, eyes widening at him not showing a hint of surprise. The monkey faunus reached for the katakana strapped to his waist, drawing it and leveling it at the groom. "Do you remember what you told me all those years ago?" He asked, his eyes narrowing.

John let go of Blake's hands, turning and approaching the hostile faunus. "I do. Do you still hold the hate for me that you did so long ago when I gave you that sword?" His calm demeanor took the crowd back.

"That depends." Sun wavered. It was as if the man that stood before him had no fear, not even of death. In fact, it was as if he was greeting a long lost friend. "Is she happy under your care?"

"That is not for me to say." John said calmly. "No matter who you are, only you can tell how you feel." He looked back at Blake, an expecting look in his eyes.

 _He planed this!_ Blake realized. The crafty bugger knew that Sun would have resentment in his heart, and had set this all up to bring it up to this moment. And now it all rested on her word.

"Be honest." John told her. "Trust me."

Blake calmed down, a tranquil mood settled in. She could tell he had no intention to die. "When you betrayed me, I was place back into the dark hole that I was left in after the white fang." Blake told Sun, looking to the side where her children stood. "I would fall into the hole again and again for the days to come. John cured that. The year of suffering I had gone through ended with one action." The room had gone silent, holding their breath to hear what came next. "He saved me from myself, and continues to keep me on my feet. And I return the favor every chance I get. When the world casts itself against me, he will stand beside me to the end." She laughed slightly. "This fool would go and die for me if I didn't stop him."

Suns body loosened up, but he still held it at the ready. "Are you happy?" He asked quietly.

Blake intertwined her fingers with John's, standing next to him and looking down on Sun. "More than I have ever been." She stated. Sun nodded and sheathed his sword, satisfied.

"I withdraw my objection." Sun said, returning to his seat. The pastor was shaken up by the conflict that had just been put to rest, but he continued on and finished the ceremony.

"With the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride." John did just that, giving Blake a deep, passionate kiss on the lips.

"You're one clever bastard, you know that right?" She whispered to him. John just smiled and gave her another kiss.

 **I would like to thank you all for reading my story. If you enjoyed, please leave a comment and read my follow up story, tales of remnant: rise of the rider.**


End file.
